


Diamonds Are Forever

by Cockbite (personalized_radio)



Series: The Cockbite Syndicate [6]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF, The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Disapproving Family, Established Relationship, Fake AH Crew, Fake Chop, Gavin Is Too, James Loses Something Very Important, M/M, None Of His Friends Are Surprised But Brett Sure Is, but for a different reason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-24 17:05:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 40,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15634998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/personalized_radio/pseuds/Cockbite
Summary: James has a question he needs to ask and a ring he needs to get back, and Gavin isn't going to let him do either.Coda toPyrite





	Diamonds Are Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kiden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiden/gifts).



> I BET U THOUGHT U'D SEEN THE LAST OF ME IN THIS AU but u would be wrong because a) gosh i love it and b) my friend jackie has a BDAY TODAY and i THINK SHES REAL COOL and she likes this fic a bunch (for some reason lmao) so i wrote this for her!!!
> 
> lemme say a few words about jackie here so she cant stop me: jackie!!! is the best!!! thank you for always listening to me ramble about my dumb fics, for betaing for me and reading random bs i send u at odd hours, for your AMAZING art and writing skills, and for being my friend honestly. you're great and i appreciate you!!!

“What do you think?”

“I mean,” Joe blinked down thoughtfully at the ring, “It sure _looks_ fancy.”

“It was three thousand dollars, dude, if it doesn’t at least _look fancy_ I’m going to shoot up Tiffany’s.”

“Okay, okay,” Joe held up his hands, but he was grinning now, “It looks...he’s gonna love it, James. For real.”

“You think so?” James looks down at the ring again, even more critical than he’d been when he picked up the finished product at the store. The ring itself was a white gold, inlaid with thin, criss-crossing lines of shimmering gold-gold. He’d picked it because he thought the pale would go with Aleks’ usual jewelry, all silvers with the occasional gold accent here or there, but wasn’t throwing away tradition altogether. His mom would come back from the grave and kill him herself if he did this with something that wasn’t gold.

“I know so. You managed to get a good balance with the diamonds. They don’t even seem kind of gaudy. Does Aleks even know what tasteful jewelry looks like?”

“He will after he sees this,” James chuckled, running the very tip of his nail along the tops of the three diamonds on display in the box. The two side diamonds were round and small, though they sparkled in the sunlight that managed to break through the umbrella shading their table, but the middle one was about the size of his pinky nail and shaded a gentle, soft pink. A princess cut, the associate had said, and James hadn’t been able to resist.

All in all, he liked it. It was a good ring. It was all...symbolic and shit.

Now, he just had to give it to Aleks.

“So, plans,” Joe closed the top of the ring box, hiding the bling from sight, “Birthday, penthouse this weekend, what?”

“I tried to convince Free to let me take him out for the day,” James slipped the box back into his inner jacket pocket, a comforting weight against his chest after already misplacing it twice since he’d bought it last week, “But he’s got the birthday by the balls, apparently.”

“You got Valentine’s Day,” Joe pointed out helpfully, and then took a bite of his oatmeal when James glared at him.

“Yeah, after I convinced Geoff to call an emergency meeting that Free _had to go to_. He never leaves us alone!”

“That’s not totally true,” Joe took a drink, “I mean, you live together, don’t you?”

“Free has a room _in the penthouse_. He’s got a key. He just - shows up! He doesn’t even tell one of us beforehand, he just waltzes in like he -”

“Owns the place?”

“Look, I don’t _care_ if he actually owns the building, it’s fuckin’ rude. If I’d known moving in would mean giving up my privacy -”

“And your shoe-box apartment -”

“Then I wouldn’t have moved in!”

“That’s a lie,” Joe scoffed and broke a piece of bacon in half to share between Ein and Mishka, who happily chomped on their prizes under his chair where they were lying in recovery from their park adventures.

“...yeah, well. I would have laid down a few more fuckin’ ground rules, at least,” James relented.

“Look, man, it’s only been, what? Seven months? It’s hard letting go of your...kid...brother...family. Especially, well. Under circumstances like you guys have.”

“I’m pretty sure he put a hit out on me, Joseph,” James lowered his voice and leaned forward, “He’s trying to kill me.”

But Joe just laughed at him again. “Don’t be paranoid, dude. If the golden boy wanted you dead, you’d of been dead when you came back to Achievement City.”

“God, he’s got you in on it, too?” James wrinkled up his nose, “It’s _Los Santos_ , Joe. They can’t just change the name of the city.”

“Get with the times, Wilson,” Joe teased, feeding another piece of bacon to Mishka without looking, “But back to the point. You didn’t get the day with him…so have the plans changed?”

“No,” James leaned back and readjusted his sunglasses. There were little rhinestones along the stems and he realized he’d accidentally grabbed a pair of Aleks’. “Brett agreed to distract his family while I sneak him off to the bedroom. Anna and Asher are gonna, like….make it fancy and romantic or whatever for us and Trevor is gonna keep him out until I get the chance to, you know, pop the question.”

“It’s like you’re combining his birthday and the engagement party, dude. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re just doing it during that party to get out of him throwing another.”

“Please,” James sighed, “I know there’s gonna be another party if he says yes -”

“When he says yes -”

“ _If_ he says yes,” James stressed, “There’s no getting out of it. I’ve resigned myself to this life. He’s going to party until he’s got two replaced hips and a wheelchair, and I’m gonna have to motor my ass behind him cleaning up the ecstasy and vodka.”

“How romantic,” Joe said with a deep sigh, and James was pretty sure it was only half faked, “You’re such a loving boyfriend.”

“Don’t call me that,” he shuddered, “Ugh. _Boyfriend_.”

“How does _fiancé_ sound? Or _husband_?”

“Jesus, stop,” James pressed a hand to his stomach, feeling faint, “I can’t believe I’m doing this. Me. _Me_.”

“Me neither, man,” Joe admitted, and the teasing faded from his tone. It was replaced with something old and fond, his eyes softening, “You know, for a long time I thought I’d never see you want to settle down with someone. I was kinda scared you’d stay, well. Like how you were.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Shut up, you know what I mean! You weren’t happy, dude. Jumping job to job, runnin’ ragged. Damn, I don’t think I saw you smile or heard you laugh for, like, a year. That whole situation with Jordan and the guys, and then _Italy_ -”

“Can we not talk about Italy?”

“No one ever wants to talk about Italy,” Joe agreed with a smaller grin, “Anyway, I just. I’m just trying to say congrats, dude. I’m proud of you, I guess.”

“Gee, thanks,” James said again, but it was maybe less sarcastic. They clinked the edges of their glasses together, James’ water and Joe’s orange juice, and drank. He was having brunch. This is what Aleks had turned him into.

When he got home, he let the girls free of their leashes and, while Aleks was still out with Brett for their weekly lunch - hopefully not trying to give his team the slip - he slipped the ring box into one of his nice suits so he wouldn’t misplace it again.

-

James was the only one to really use their kitchen. He’d moved in about four months ago and, since then, he’d only ever seen Aleks make toast or heat leftovers in the microwave.

Not that he complaining. He liked to cook, he was even known to _bake_ when the mood struck, and cooking for two wasn’t much different than cooking for one. Aleks liked it, and liked making sure James was eating healthy so, really, they both benefited.

The only problem with cooking, with being in the kitchen for any amount of time at all, was that Aleks, for some fucking reason, insisted on treating the island like another bed.

“If you’re tired, you could go back to bed,” James pointed out, twisting the knob to turn the heat off under his skillet, “Your morning is clear.”

“It’s not _clear_ ,” Aleks protested, yawning into the sleeve of his sweater. It was actually _James’_ sweater, but it looked cute enough that he wasn’t gonna complain that he was stretching the sleeves. “It’s filled to the brim with activities.”

“Bothering me isn’t an activity,” James served the omelette onto the plate next to two pieces of still-warm toast and set the skillet down in the sink to his left.

“That’s mean. On my _birthday_. You’re kind of a monster.”

“A monster that made you breakfast,” James agreed, turning to face him with the plate. Aleks was happily perched on the island with his legs crossed, in nothing but that sweater and his boxer-briefs. His hair was messy and make-up non-existent. He didn’t even seem fully awake yet, only up because he’d refused to stay in bed when James went to make him something to eat.

He was kinda the best thing James had ever seen.

“A monster that made me breakfast,” Aleks repeated back and then made grabby hands for the plate. James, with a deep sigh, handed it over, and then watched as Aleks leaned over to set it down as far from them as he could.

“It’s gonna get cold,” He frowned, but Aleks just reached for him instead, caught the waistband of his boxers and dragged him close.

“That’s fine,” Aleks tugged him until he was pressed to the edge of the island, “I’m not really hungry for that anyway.”

“That’s not smooth. You’re not being smooth right now.”

Aleks just grinned and uncrossed his legs so he could move closer, leaned forward to kiss him. James, despite knowing that his fucking eggs were going to go to waste, rested the tips of his fingers against the underside of Aleks’ jaw and kissed him back.

Aleks had no misgivings about kissing him. He’d never had, right from the start, and now was no exception. He kissed like it was a game, like James was something he wanted to tease and taunt even as he laced his arms around James’ shoulders, dropped his legs over the edge of the island so he could hug James’ hips with his knees.

James was fuckin’ weak against this bullshit and Aleks knew it and played him like a fiddle every time. James had a _rule_ about the _island_ , but he still found himself pressing a guiding hand to Aleks’ back, urging him closer until they were flush and the only thing stopping them was the edge of the counter.

Aleks made a soft, happy sort of noise when James put a hand on one of his thighs, and squirmed impatiently, making it clear as he pressed to lie back on the counter, that James had a choice between joining him or fucking holding him up himself and he’d better pick fast.

He broke the kiss and barely needed to take in the smug grin on Aleks’ lips before he was sighing as loudly as he could.

“You’re such a brat,” He cursed and pushed Aleks back so he could awkwardly clamber onto the island with him, “This is only happening because -”

“Because you want to kiss me?” Aleks teased, already tugging him back before he was fully balanced. He tipped over alarmingly fast but Aleks caught him and between one second and the next they were wrapped around each other again. James held the back of his head, cushioned it against the cool, hard tile of the island and Aleks grinned up at him with that same smug fucking smirk.

“Because it’s your birthday,” James corrected soundly, and then leaned down to kiss him again. It was softer than before, more about James kind of wanting to feel him than seduce him, and Aleks took to it with another content noise.

“You’re most of my impulse control,” Aleks said between kisses, “If I can get you to break your rules, what’s that say for me?”

“That you get special treatment once a year.” James decided and that made Aleks laugh.

“Special treatment like kitchen sex?”

“You’re pushing your luck, asshole.”

“Don’t I always?”

James’ hands were busy, one arm supporting his weight so he didn’t crush Aleks under him and the other making sure Aleks didn’t bash his head in, but he was the one that rocked their bodies together first, grinning his own smug grin when Aleks shivered.

“Are you even awake enough for kitchen sex?”

“I’m always awake enough for any kind of sex with you, lover.” Aleks batted his eyelashes at him and James found himself laughing before he could stop himself.

“Lover? Is that what we’re calling each other now?”

“Well, you don’t like any of my other names. Maybe something straight to the point works better for my very serious, totally mature significant other.”

“Boyfriend really does sound like we’re in high school, doesn’t it.”

“You know what, let’s talk about the nomenclature of our relationship after we’re done with the kitchen sex, huh?”

“That works for me,” James agreed, because he was close to saying _Does fiancé sound better?_

Aleks set up enough that he could reach James to kiss him again, quick teasing things that made James chase his lips for more, while he settled a hand on James’ side and rocked their hips together.

“This,” Aleks said against his cheek, soft, “Is exactly how I wanted to celebrate.”

“Yeah?” James stroked his fingers through Aleks’ hair now that he wasn’t cushioning it against the tile, their bodies moving together in a slow, familiar rhythm so familiar to him by now that it was second nature, “Should I call the others, then? Cancel the party?”

“What would you even say?” Aleks laughed, and his eyes alight and dancing with amusement . Aleks was always going on about James’ eyes, like James fucking bewitched him or something just because his eyes were wide, but James couldn’t help but wonder if Aleks knew how nice _his_ eyes were when he was happy.

“Hey, guys,” James said, keeping his voice calm and serious as he could when he had Aleks giggling under him and their bodies heating up, “This is James. I’m just calling to rain check tonight. Aleks just wants to have kitchen sex to celebrate so we don’t need a party.”

“As much as I would _love_ ,” Aleks sighed in pleasure, eyes closing for a few seconds at a particular touch to his hip as James rubbed his thigh between his legs, “to spend all day on an island of debauchery, pun intended, who would give me presents? Or will you be covering for everyone with your present?”

“I didn’t buy you jack-shit,” James scoffed, but they both knew Aleks could see right through him, “I made you some macaroni art from leftovers a few days ago, though.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it,” Aleks pressed his lips together to hide his amusement, so James kissed him in an attempt to taste the laughter he was holding back.

He felt Aleks’ smile against his lips, breaking the kiss, so James trailed his own lips down to his bristly jaw, pressed wet kisses there that made Aleks squirm.

“You know, for someone who is against sex in kitchens, you’re doing a really bad job of turning me off to the idea,” Aleks tilted his head back for James and James took advantage, dragging his beard down Aleks’ throat to make him shiver.

“It’s barely first base if neither of us are naked,” James decided, his hand casually slipping under Aleks’ sweater to press against his belly.

“I thought first base was holding hands,”

“I’m running your diamond this time,” James’ fingers were light as they traced along Aleks’ stomach, appreciating the soft, warm skin, the dark hair that started around his belly button and continued down into his boxer-briefs. He took a second to trace around the little ball of his newest piercing, finally healed, and didn’t stop until Aleks pinched him.

“That fucking tickles, dude, don’t even start,”

“If you’re ticklish, why did you get something pierced right in the middle of where you’re ticklish?”

“Because it’s hot?” Aleks answered, like James was an idiot for even having to ask. James hid a smile in his shoulder at that and left the little ball alone. He found the elastic of Aleks’ boxer-briefs next and then paused.

Aleks squirmed, legs shifting where they were wrapped around James’, and James pulled away enough to see his scrunched up face looking at him.

“You’re teasing me on my _birthday_ , dude. That’s not right, like, morally. ”

“Since when have I been a moral person?”

Aleks didn’t _pout_ at him, but it was a damn close thing and James couldn’t resist kissing him again. His lips were soft, welcoming, and James enjoyed it for a few seconds more, just a few.

Then he moved past the elastic and, through the material of his boxer-briefs, found the outline of his erection. Aleks made a soft sound into their kiss, clutching at James’ shoulder with carefully relaxed fingers.

James could have teased him more, and Aleks probably would have let him for awhile before he started to whine, but James was...a little bit impatient, himself. He wanted t feel Aleks coming apart and kiss him through it and see his stupid, content face afterward. So he ran his fingers gently down his length so get an idea of where he needed to press and then set his palm where he was pretty sure the base was and rubbed up, firm and steady and then back down.

Aleks broke the kiss with a gasp, the hand on James’ shoulder going tense and then relaxing on repeat until Aleks caught his breath.

“Good?” James tilted his head so he could rub his nose along the curve of Aleks’ jaw, suddenly feeling like they were the only things in the world that existed. Just the two of them, on the dumbass kitchen island and nothing else.

“Do that again,” Aleks swallowed, blinking his eyes open, something kind of like wonder on his face, “Can you do that again?”

James didn’t hesitate to do what was asked, not with those eyes looking at him so openly, pleasure and trust, and all of those feelings that made James’ heart constrict, plain for him to see, because Aleks wasn’t trying to mask it.

Despite his general personality, Aleks wasn’t often loud. He could be if he needed to be, if he was playing that role, but for someone so...himself, Aleks was usually more...soft. This was not such an occasion. He made no secret of his pleasure, gasping and whining James’ name in encouragement. His fingers kneaded James’ shoulder, silently telling him when he was on the right track, his grip growing progressively tighter as James worked him over.

They didn’t talk aside from Aleks sighing his name, but they didn’t need to. He just watched Aleks’ face as he touched him, pride and fondness and an overwhelming urge to somehow get even closer to him filling him up.

When Aleks came, James had been ready for it for an eternity. His nails had dug into James’ shoulder at some point without either of them noticing but it was the way his legs began to tremble that gave him away. He went taut, voice going quiet, and then slowly rolled his hips into James’ hand until he went suddenly loose.

James felt the warmth on his hand, though it was more of a dampness to Aleks’ boxer-briefs, but didn’t get the chance to think much of it because Aleks was kissing him and his mouth was demanding as much as it was thankful.

He de-clawed his nails from James’ shoulder, stroked the little stinging places with the pads of his fingers in apology, and then James was was contending with trying to focus on this kiss when he had Aleks’ hand in his boxers. Clever fingers sought him out easily and wrapped around his dick with a confident grip.

It was his turn to break the kiss, leaning their foreheads together so he could catch his breath and try not to make a fool of himself. He wasn’t far from the edge himself, not after watching Aleks and touching him.

“You’re so sweet to me,” Aleks said quietly, his voice warm and relaxed and content, like he had no care in the world aside from this moment, “Breaking your own rules ‘n’ all.”

“Just,” James had to swallow back a low groan, his hips twitching as his body tried to thrust into Aleks’ hand, “Just doing my job.”

“Yeah?” Aleks said with an amused uptick, like he wasn’t totally convinced, “Are you sure it’s not because you _like_ me?”

“Ugh,” James tried to scoff, “You’re the worst, Aleks.”

“Less stinging when my hand’s around your dick,” Aleks hummed, but his didn’t stop touching James and James didn’t stop rocking into his hand, the pleasure and arousal building in his core and slowly rising outward.

James didn’t answer him, mostly because he couldn’t. His brain wouldn’t make anymore words, too focused on Aleks and his hand and his dumb fucking face and how it made his heart beat faster than the fucking sex did. Aleks seemed to get it because he didn’t try to get him to talk, just leaned forward until James was holding up most of their combined weight, Aleks’ head resting on his shoulder and angled down to see what he was doing. James closed his eyes, resting his cheek to Aleks’ soft hair and tried to regulate his breathing.

It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity to him; sitting together while Aleks brought him closer and closer with a gentle hand, whispered words about how good he’d made Aleks feel, how good he looked, how much Aleks wanted him. When he did finally come, it was with a quiet sound hidden in Aleks’ hair and a tight grip on Aleks’ hip.

Aleks stroked him through it and only pulled his hand back when he was sure that James had been thoroughly exhausted.

They both looked at his hand, now spunk-covered, and James was gearing up to get off the island to grab a rag when Aleks just shrugged and licked his palm.

“Aleksandr!”

“What!?” Aleks defended himself, eyes dancing behind the straight face he was pulling, “It’s protein, James.”

“You’re fucking disgusting.”

“What, you can fuckin’ shoot it all over me but licking it is out of the question?”

“Stop. Stop talking to me. There’s something wrong with you.” He declared, not for the first time.

“Maybe there’s not enough semen in my life,” Aleks offered, sitting up and stretching out like his body wasn’t already starting to ache from their casual fuckery atop the unforgiving tiles. Maybe it was the yoga. James really needed to get into that.

“Want me to organize a gangbang? I’d hate to leave you unsatisfied.”

“Only if they’re all as cute as you, babe,” Aleks blew him a kiss and rescued the plate from the very brink of the counter’s edge where they’d pushed it. James had forgotten about it pretty quick after getting on the counter, and it was a miracle that it hadn’t been knocked off. Fuckin’ stone-cold, but whole.

“These are ruined,” He grumbled, poking at the eggs, “But the toast should be fine. Not exactly a delicious meal, huh?”

“I already had that,” Aleks licked his lips, like James needed to be reminded.

“This is fine,” he continued, and then took a bite out of the plain toast. He offered it to James after the first bite and that was how they finished the pieces, Aleks taking a bite and then holding it out for James to bite, back and forth.

And yes, they stayed on the counter the whole time, though James made Aleks help him wipe it down when they were done. He was mildly convinced Gavin ran blue-lights over the place while they were gone and he wasn’t going to be kinkshamed for getting seduced on the kitchen counter.

They took a shower together after he cleaned the dishes and James washed Aleks’ hair for him, fingers working firmly through the locks, almost a scalp massage, until Aleks was mostly puddy. Aleks made him sit and tilt his head back so he could return the favor, perhaps not grasping the concept of traditional birthday spoiling. But he had a thing about James’ hair and who was he to deny him, even if it meant a shower twenty minutes longer than his usual.

Everything was almost tender, if James had to describe it, both of them in a happy, relaxed mood that translated to a lot of intimate touches in the shower and playful bickering when they were out. They ended up in the living room, dressed for the day and relaxing on the sectional with an episode of Always Sunny playing on the screen.

James had convinced Geoff a couple days ago to give them at least until eleven before anyone showed up, if only so Aleks could sleep in, but it had taken a lot of cajoling and James honestly hadn’t expected that he’d actually get it to happen.

But they hadn’t been interrupted by the time eleven rolled around and that could only mean that the Fakes, who were the only forces on earth capable of keeping one Gavin Free out of their home for longer than an hour or two, had done him the favor of letting him have the morning of an important day with Aleks. It shouldn’t have meant that much, but it...kind of did, even if they’d only done it for Aleks’ sake.

Aleks had his feet firmly planted under James thigh while James propped his legs up on the ottoman and scrolled Twitter with his left hand so Aleks could file the nails on his right when the dreaded knock finally came, just a moment after the clock ticked over the eleven mark.

At least he’d knocked this time.

“Aleksandr!”

“Aleks!”

“Happy birthday, love!” Three different voices all shouted in unison, and Aleks was already almost to the door before James had even stood up, shaking his right hand out.

James watched Geoff, Jack, and Gavin pile into the penthouse, all gravitating towards Aleks, who bloomed under the attention like a flower.

“Hey! You guys are early.”

“It’s almost noon, kid,” Geoff scoffed, “We waited long enough to give you two lovebirds your time together.”

Gavin’s face made it clear to James that he’d rather not have given them any time together at all, ever, but he was smiling again when Aleks turned back to him.

“It’s barely eleven, Geoff,” Aleks corrected, “But, uh. Thanks for coming.”

“First birthday out of the house,” Jack said, sounding a little emotional, “Our boy is growing up!”

“I’m twenty-five years old, Jack,” Aleks accepted his hug, “I’ve been _grown up_ for, like. Seven years. I’m closer to thirty than - you know what? Nevermind. Ugh.” Aleks shuddered, and then laughed when all four of them made outraged noises.

“Thirty is not _old_ ,” Gavin sniffed, “Not that I’d know. I’m twenty-eight, and don’t you forget it.”

“Gav, you’ve been twenty-eight for three years in a row,”

“And I’ll _continue_ to be twenty-eight, thank you very much,” Gavin pointed a threatening finger a Jack and James migrated to the kitchen to give them their space. Even if he’d been...mostly forgiven, there was always the slightest edge of _outsider_ when he was around the Fakes. It wasn’t exactly something he faulted them for, he was sure Aleks probably felt pretty similar when James’ team was hanging out in a personal capacity rather than as his security detail.

Still, it wasn’t the first time he’d relegated himself to coffeemaker, and it wouldn’t be the last, he was sure. He’d never in his life been able to make a good pot of coffee, but the Keurig had yet to let him down so he went ahead and started preparing the usual orders. By the time he had four cups on one of the serving trays James had no doubt Jack had brought over at some point for this specific purpose, Aleks had moved his family into the living room and they were all lounging on the couch and talking with plenty of articulation.

James took a few seconds to look the kitchen over, make sure there was no _evidence_ , and then looked outside to make sure Ein and Mishka were still running around and hadn’t thrown themselves over the railings somehow. He could see them dozing in the sunlight, Mishka’s tail lazily wagging and Ein’s little legs kicking in some sort of doggy dream.

He joined the Fakes in the living room with the coffee just as Geoff was asking, “So what did your live-in boy make for breakfast?”

“He _did_ feed you, didn’t he?” Gavin broke in, teasing enough that Aleks might have taken it as a joke and not as a snide, British, punk-ass insult, like James couldn’t _feed his own_ -

“Oh, he did,” Aleks smiled, innocent enough, “It was delicious.”

“ _Coffee_!” James said, louder than necessary, and placed the tray on the ottoman. Aleks had had half the fuckin’ top ripped off and replaced with black hardwood to use as a coffee table since they couldn’t fit one in with the rest of the damn sectional, and he went ahead and distributed the coffee with a stern look at Aleks so he wouldn’t get any fucking _ideas_. There was an unsteady peace between him and this particular crime family and Aleks thought it was far too fuckin’ funny to push the boundaries.

“Oh, coffee,” Gavin said, almost dismissively, “How thoughtful.”

As if James didn’t get coffee every time they came over. _But_ James wasn’t going to let it bother him, not today of all days. Gavin could be as pricky as he wanted to be and James would rise above it.

“Yeah, man,” Geoff clasped his shoulder with a friendly hand, “Thanks. You don’t have to do this every time we show our ugly mugs, ya’ know.”

“It’s just putting a cup in a machine,” James forced his eyes off Gavin and onto Geoff, who was not an oily snake like his significant other’s mentor. “It’s not a problem.”

“Still,” Jack agreed, who was _also_ not an oily snake, “Thanks, man. You always remember the right ones and everything!”

James caught sight of Aleks’ face, practically glowing, and was abruptly reminded of why he was trying to impress these people, and said oily snake, with coffee.

“Seriously, it’s not a big deal,” He picked the tray back up, “So what are the plans? I know that, uh...some amount of people are supposed to be showing up to decorate or something?”

In unison, Geoff and Jack groaned and Gavin and Aleks went somehow brighter. James wasn’t sure if highlighter had anything to do with that, but he’d heard enough talk about it to assume that it did.

“Ryan and Geoff will be taking you to pick out a few materials for a -”

“Surprise!” Geoff interrupted, shoving at Gavin’s arm, “Don’t ruin it, asshole!”

“Fine, _fine_ ,” Gavin shoved him back and then flapped a hand, “New materials for a _surprise_. And then the lads wanted to take you to the track for a test ride of Rimmy Tim’s new armada. Finally, Jack is taking you to the spa for a few hours! They’ll fix you all up for the party, won’t they!”

“Are we not hanging out?” Aleks asked, the smile having faded a little, “I mean, if you’re busy, it’s fine -”

“Shut up, Aleks, I’m not too _busy_. It’s just that,” Gavin said with no small smile to Aleks, who immediately beamed back, “It’s a surprise, innit?”

“Just tell me it’s not ring shopping,” Aleks joked, and everyone but James laughed.

“No,” Gavin held out his hands and Aleks took them easily, “But it is a surprise that I’ll tell you about tonight. I’ll be prepping the party while you’re out and about! Everyone will be here tonight and I won’t have Barbara telling me I can’t throw a good party again, that .”

“And what about you?” Aleks turned to James, wiggling his eyebrows, “Anything _special_ planned? Maybe more macaroni art?”

“Apparently,” James couldn’t help but grin a little, “I’m joining the bandwagon, here. It’s a _surprise_. You’ll just have to live with the image of macaroni art until tonight.”

If he survived that long. He could already see battle lines being drawn between he and Gavin as soon as Aleks left.

“Ugh, none of you are any fun.” Aleks frowned, “How am I supposed to find out what you got me early if you don’t tell me?”

“If you’d snooped better -” Gavin started to say, only for another knock to interrupt him, “And those would be the decorators! And that means it’s time for you all to leave! Aleks, be a dear and get your outfit for Jack to take to the spa for cleaning.”

None of them had finished their coffee but James wasn’t particularly worried about it. He collected two mugs while Aleks and Jack disappeared toward the bedroom and Geoff went to answer the door, but someone else had already picked up the other two before he’d had the chance.

He looked up to find Gavin glaring at him. Aleks was safely out of the room so he couldn’t find it in himself to not return the heat with full force.

“You gave me the wrong coffee again.” Gavin said with frost in his voice.

“Oops.” James smiled stiffly, “Maybe next time.”

He turned on his heels to head back to the kitchen and cursed to himself when he realized Gavin was following.

“Whatever you have planned,” Gavin said quietly, “It better be _perfect_. This is an important day.”

“I _know_ ,” He snipped back, dumping his two mugs and then snatching the other two from Gavin to dump them, too. He turned the water on and rolled his sleeves up to the elbows before he grabbed the sponge and soap to clean out the mugs.

“Just try not to ruin this,”

“ _You_ try not to ruin it!”

“ _Me_!? You’re the one that’s always passive-aggressive -”

“Oh, _I’m_ passive-aggressive -”

“Well, you’re certainly _aggressive_ , you uncouth -”

“Smarmy fuckin’ -”

“Look!” Gavin said sharply, cutting him off, “The family will be here tonight. He might not care if you embarrass him in front of his peers, but he worked hard to earn respect as an adult from these people and the last thing he needs is you - fine, you _or me_ undermining him.”

“...I’m listening.” James stopped attempting to scrub all the color off one of the mugs.

“Let’s have ourselves a tiny little truce for the day, why don’t we?” Gavin said, sounding like the words were being dragged out of him. “I won’t antagonize you, if you don’t antagonize me. For Aleks’ big day and all that.”

“...yeah, okay. Fine.” James gave in, “For Aleks. But just so we’re clear, if you start something, this _truce_ is off.”

“Deal,” Gavin wrinkled up his nose like he was smelling something bad, but he still clasped James’ hand, wet from the dishes, and shook once before they both let go. James immediately put his hand back under the hot water and started cleaning again, hoping he could scrub off Gavin’s grip. He could feel the slime on his hand.

“Now, I’m going to go help Aleks with his clothes. You don’t mind finishing these up, do you, dear?” Gavin tipped him a salute and James sneered until he’d pranced out of the kitchen to head into the bedroom.

The thing was, James could understand. Gavin was...protective, to say the least, of Aleks, especially after the whole Law fiasco. If their places were reversed, James doubted very much that he’d approve of any sort of relationship between he and Aleks. He hadn’t _blamed_ Gavin for decking him in the airport, and he honestly hadn’t blamed any of the Fakes for being apprehensive.

But the _other_ thing was, James was trying. He’d been trying so fucking hard to prove himself to them. To everyone - not just the Fakes, but Aleks and to his team, too. He’d broken...a lot. Trust, relationships, the reputation of he and his team in their profession. He’d hurt Aleks, but he’d hurt Anna and Asher and Jakob, too. They’d put their trust in him and he’d, well. He’d pulled an Italy.

He’d worked to mend his fences, though. Used all of his savings to pay off debts and broken contracts, to move the team out from headquartering in Colorado to Los Santos, to make sure that they were cared for and safe. He’d worked his ass off for Geoff when he needed back up on small-time jobs, he’d tried his damndest to make himself useful to the Fakes, to be more than just that turn-coat that shacked up with their boy.

He _was_ more than a live-in boy. He was damn good at his job, he was talented, he was _smart_. And maybe he was just a bodyguard now, but that was because it meant he could be with Aleks and he could keep his team employed at the same time - because he’d….because he’d fallen in love and settled down, not because he wasn’t _capable_. Things with Law didn’t go bad because James hadn’t done his job right - things had gone bad because James switched teams, and his own team followed his lead even though he really didn’t deserve it.

So James could see why Gavin hated him. But he could also see where Gavin was just - being _stubborn_ and possessive and _an asshole_. The other Fakes hadn’t totally forgiven him, but they seemed to have accepted him, at least. It ranged from actual pleasantness, like with Jack, to general apathy, like with Ray. Geoff and Michael leaned more toward Jack, while Ryan was soundly in the middle and Jeremy leaned toward Ray - but Gavin was on a whole nother level of enmity.

James hadn’t been kidding about the hits. He was almost sure Gavin had one waiting to go live on him.

“James!” Aleks called from the bedroom just as he was finishing up with the mugs, “Have you dry cleaned your suits recently!?”

James turned around to answer, and had to pause for a second to take in the absolute chaos that was already happening in his home. Geoff had let in the decorators, of which there were at least ten, all of whom holding various pieces of equipment, tools, or boxes.

“James!?”

“Uh,” James raised his voice so he could be heard, “No!?”

He heard Aleks make an obnoxious, annoyed sound and would have found it annoying and cute in equal measure if he hadn’t had to stop someone from trying to shift the couch.

“No, no, that doesn’t move. Take your shit...elsewhere. This stays right where it is, thanks.”

“But the bar?” the man trying to shift the couch said, frowning in confusion.

“We have a _kitchen_?” James pointed with force, and the guy frowned harder but stopped trying to shift the couch and drifted over to the kitchen to start measuring the island. James was...glad they had cleaned that this morning.

“Okay,” Aleks, Jack, and Gavin emerged from the bedroom, Jack holding two dry cleaning bags obviously containing clothes over his arm, “We’re heading out, then. James, light of my life, hater of clean suits, I’m giving this to the front desk for altering and cleaning. They’ll have it back by tonight, so don’t forget to pick it up at the front desk, okay?”

“Yes, dear,” James said as drolly as he possibly could, but accepted Aleks into his arms when he practically floated over. He really was kind of glowing, between their nice morning and getting to spend a whole day the center of his family’s attention. It was a good look on him. Aleks cupped his face with both hands, pressed a sweet kiss to his lips and suddenly all the workers and Aleks’ family disappeared entirely.

James kissed him back, squeezing his side and elbow lightly. When Aleks pulled back, James looked him over quickly to make sure he was actually ready and hadn’t forgotten anything. His makeup was in place, if lighter than usual, and his hair was just starting to grow dark at the roots and James almost asked him right fucking there. Instead, he swallowed it back. Soon.

“Makeup check? How’s it look?” Aleks tilted his face this way and that and James found himself smiling.

“It looks a little too good to be going to a race track.”

Aleks laughed, obviously pleased, “No, please, don’t go on.”

“You’re such a fucking brat,” James huffed, but he brushed a thumb under his eye before he continued, “Have fun. Be careful in the fuckin’ cars, okay?”

“If I can survive your driving…” Aleks trailed off, and the teasing was obvious enough that James just rolled his eyes at him. “For real, though. You and Gav...try to get along, okay?”

“We...talked.” James frowned, thoughtful, “We’ll get along, at least for today. Don’t worry about us, dude. Go...get pampered and shit. Happy birthday.”

“That’s the first time you’ve said it to me today,” Aleks said, beaming, and James found himself smiling back before he could stop himself. Damn it.

“You’re a goddamn liar. I said it this morning, before we even got out of bed.”

“I wasn’t awake until you kissed me on the island, so that doesn’t count,”

“It’s not _my fault_ -”

“Gotta go!” Aleks announced, pulling away with one more affectionate _mwah_ to James’ cheek, “See you tonight!”

“Fuck off,” James waved him off, but he still watched until Aleks was out of the door before he finally let out a great sigh.

Their friends would be showing up soon. He just had to survive this madness until then.

“No, goddamn it, “ he shouted, noticing yet another guy trying to shift his couch, “The couch _stays_!”

-

“Lots of lights,” James said a few hours later, with Anna and Asher to either side of him. He lifted his hands and brought them out kind of in the shape of a rainbow in the direction of the area above the bed, “All above the bed, right? And, uh, candles? He likes candles. But they can’t be burning for too long or the smell might attract unwanted pests.”

“We’ve got fake candles.” Anna cut in, “Seriously, Wilson. We’ve got this under control. I think we know what a romantic setting is.”

“You, maybe. Don’t leave this one alone in here,” James pointed a thumb over his shoulder at Asher, who made an outraged noise that simmered into a _yeah, okay_ noise before it had even finished.

“You’re just scared I’ll find your gross sex toy stash,”

“We don’t need toys,” James smirked at him, “Just the two dicks are all we -”

“You’re overthinking this and I don’t want to hear about what you do or don’t need in this bedroom,” Anna nudged him with a hand at his elbow, louder, “Now, show me this rock. Joe said it was nice.”

James took a deep breath and forced himself to relax, “I mean. I hope it is. I was gonna show you guys but with all the planning and shit -”

“So show us _now_ ,” Asher clapped his hands together, “Chop-chop, we’ve got a lot of decorating to do and not enough time to dilly-dally.”

“ _Dilly-dally_?”

“He’s been watching a lot of TLC,” Anna excused and James was still shaking his head when he opened the closet door.

Aleks had a closet that was about the size of James’ old apartment, filled with clothes, shoes, accessories, and jewelry. Aleks had kindly given him a whole shelf for his things but he’d only used about half the space offered. He had about five nice suits, a tux, and then two drawers of casual wear and a small collection of beanies he hadn’t made use of since he’d let his hair grow out, plus a small box of watches and other accessories Aleks had foisted upon him at some point or another. If he sold everything in this fuckin’ room, he could probably have bought Law’s ring himself, truth be told.

That ring was sitting in plain sight with the rest of Aleks’ sparkly bits, the main event of the whole display on a mannequin hand. Aleks’ locket was resting on the palm of the hand next to it, still as beautiful as ever. Aleks wore it every time he wore the ring, like they were a matched set but, according to the more fashion-savvy of this particular partnership, that ring was a winter color so it had been placed away until the cold months returned. Also, apparently it was _tacky_ to wear it too often, despite all the trouble that had gone into procuring it.

“That was always Law’s problem,” Gavin had said once, sighing over his tea cup.

“He was so _tacky_ ,” Aleks had continued, sounding just as disappointed.

“Yeah,” James had said, having worked for Law long enough to know exactly what his problems were, “That was definitely his biggest flaw, guys.”

For so many clothes, Aleks had the closet meticulously organized by designer and color, and he moved past the rainbow of Jinx branded attire that Aleks favored to his own little corner of the closet, only to stop up short when he saw a familiar suit still hanging on the rack, and another suit...not.

“Uh,” He turned back around and left the closet, trying not to panic, “Gimme a sec. I think there was a mix up or something,”

“Yeah, sure,” Anna said from where she’d been standing on his night table to measure the space from the top of the backboard to the ceiling.

“Free!” He yelled, leaving the room to return to the chaos of the decorators. Brett and Trevor had arrived two and a half hours ago with a woman named Lindsey, who was apparently the one running the show despite what Gavin was trying to do, and he spotted them before he spotted the one he was really looking for.

“He’s by the pool,” Brett said, not looking up from his phone, “Also do you like dark wood or light wood more? Aleks wants to know.”

“Uh,” James paused, trying to think, “It doesn’t matter to me. Dark wood, I guess.”

Brett shot him a thumbs up, still not looking up, and Aleks left the three of them to talk about fuckin’ wood or whatever to find Gavin.

“Hey, Free!” He waved to catch Gavin’s attention, who was arguing with one of the decorators by the pool. The woman was holding two spools of lights and motioning to the water but Gavin was pointing emphatically at the railings around the yard instead.

He ignored James until James was close enough to hear him saying, “No, no, the pool already _has_ lighting. These go around the -”

“Okay, okay, okay!” She gave in, “You’re the boss! I’ll have to go talk to the lighting guy, though, we prepped these for pool use, not open air use,”

“Then off you go,” Gavin crossed his arms, looking like he was going to war, and the woman obviously had to work to keep the bird she wanted to flip him from showing up as she turned on her heels to leave with the spools of light. Gavin watched her go for a second and then finally turned to look at James.

“Yes?” He said archly.

“Don’t get pissy with me, I’ve been coordinating the fucking bar they’re trying to build in my kitchen.” James snapped back, more defensive than he meant to sound. He took a deep breath and tried to sound calmer when he asked, “I’m just asking about the fuckin’ dry cleaning. I thought Aleks took my suit when he left?”

“He took the one you’re wearing to the party,” Gavin said slowly, like James was dragging every ounce of patience he had in him out, “There was a shift in Aleks’ planned wardrobe, so we picked a different suit for you. He said you wouldn’t care.”

“I don’t, I was just -” James stopped, “What...what suit did he grab?”

“Oh, you can’t expect me to -” Gavin sighed again, closed his eyes like he was thinking, “Oh, it was the white one with the gold lining on the lapels. He’s wearing black with silver accents, so the dichotomy - _Oi_ , hello!? Am I talkin’ to myself!?”

But James was already gone, speed-walking back into the penthouse with the controlled pace of the truly fucked.

“Come with me,” He said as he passed Brett and Trevor and, possibly sensing his urgency, neither of them asked questions. They left Lindsey behind to continue directing the efforts and followed him into the bedroom, but stopped with Anna and Asher while James dived back into the closet. He bee-lined for his suits and, with a cursory search that he would never tell a soul included him tossing everything out of both drawers and shoving his suits around with the care of an elephant, confirmed his fear.

“It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?” Brett asked, almost like he was begging James to say something like _My shoe!_ or _Everything except the ring!_

“The _ring_!” James maybe shouted, shoving his feet into a pair of sneakers and crouching down to hurriedly tie the laces, “It was in one of my suits, but Aleks took the suit.”

“Okay, maybe you...maybe you just put it somewhere else.”

“No, I know exactly where I put it.” James stood back up and went to grab his wallet and keys from the bedside drawer, “He took it downstairs for dry cleaning. Maybe they still have it.”

“Yeah, that’s. That’s a plan.” Brett nodded slowly, “Go downstairs and see if they still have it. And if they don’t, just get the address and go pick it up. This is fine.”

“It’s not fine at all,” Trevor spoke up, “What if it was _stolen_ -”

“Not helping, bro,” Asher interrupted, “I’m sure it’s not stolen. Because if it was stolen -”

“What kind of proposal would it be without a ring, right?” Brett said, “A _bad_ one. And my best friend is not getting a _bad_ proposal. Especially not his first one.”

“His _only_ one if I have anything to say about it,” James shoved his things into his pockets and turned around to hurry out of the door. Nothing was gonna stop him from - well. One thing might stop him.

Gavin stood in the doorway, his face still frozen in shock. James had never seen him with his mouth hanging open before.

“Oh shit.” he said, because Gavin was standing in the doorway.

“What - oh. Shit.” Brett turned around, “...hi, Gav.”

“Brett Hundley,” Gavin said slowly, his voice controlled enough that James put a pause on his plan to risk the free-fall through the window to escape, and yet still managing to sound like a threat when he continued, “Did you just say _proposal_?”

“No.” Brett hesitated, like he was remembering who exactly he was speaking to, “Well, yes.”

Gavin looked at each of them, one face to the next, before his eyes settled on James.

“You.”

“Me.” James straightened up. He’d be lying if he said he’d hoped to talk to Gavin about this before actually getting the ring on Aleks’ finger. He’d wanted a barrier between them so he wouldn’t get his throat slit immediately. But now the ring was gone, and he needed to track it down before all of his plans were ruined.

Aleks deserved a damn good fucking proposal, and there was no way James would be able to hide that ring long enough for another appropriate time to roll around. All of Aleks’ friends and family would be there tonight, and he fucking loved those big, stupid declarations. James just wanted to give him the best experience he could, and that meant somehow getting around one pissed off Brit.

“You…” Gavin seemed at a loss for words, “ _Proposing_?”

“You know what?” James made himself uncross his arms, because he wasn’t _ashamed_ , “Yes, I fucking am. I’m proposing to Aleks tonight. I’m going to ask him to marry me.”

It looked like each word was a punch to the gut for Gavin, who closed his eyes before James was finished.

He was silent for a long time, at least thirty seconds, not that James was counting, but when he opened his eyes, he was calm.

“I see.”

“...okay.” James nodded, suddenly unsure. He’d...expected a bigger reaction. “So...you’re...cool?”

“Me?” Gavin laughed, “Of course! For a second there, I thought you were serious! But this is a joke. Because you can’t do that.”

Ah. Okay. This was more what he’d been expecting.

“It’s not a joke.” He argued, “I’m serious. I’m asking Aleks tonight.”

“No,” Gavin said patiently, “You most definitely are _not_. I forbid it.”

“You can forbid all you’d god damn like!” James raised his voice, frustration making it difficult to control his tone, “But I’m not asking for your permission and he doesn’t need it, either!”

“Now, I’ve held my tongue,” Gavin _shifted_ and, all at once, James wasn’t just looking at Gavin, Aleks’ family member. This was the Golden Boy, and he was dangerous. Maybe James had finally pushed him over the edge. “I’ve kept my piece to myself, I’ve accomodated. Aleks was sad, so I brought you back. Aleks was happy, so I approved of his relationship with you. I’ll admit, I wasn’t as thrilled when you moved into the penthouse, but you know what they say about young love. It burns hot, for how fast it goes.”

“I don’t care about how much you’ve _accommodated_.” James threw at him, even as he carefully took a few steps to the side. Gavin had left the door open and the others quickly funneled out, giving them privacy for their...spat. “He isn’t a teenage bride! He’s a grown-ass man who can make his own decisions, and he’s decided he loves me, whether you approve or not.”

“Oh, I was a fool,” Gavin took a few more steps toward James and, following his instincts, James stepped onto the bed to put more distance between them, “He seemed so sad, so I thought I’d invite you back until he got bored and moved on! But _you_ ,” He nodded his finger at James, accusing, “ _You_. I should have just let him finish grieving with that ugly couch and move on with his life! Well, this is the last time I try to be the bigger person, that’s for sure. Marriage! You! Marry him! Are you out of your _mind_ , Nova?”

“Does it sting?” James couldn’t help but mock, because if Gavin was gonna get dirty, so was he. “I bet you hate that you aren’t pulling every string in his life. Does it scare you that he might end up leaving you?”

Gavin lunged so suddenly that James almost didn’t move in time. The bed saved his goddamn life, just wide enough that Gavin had to stumble to get over it and James leapt the fuck off and sprinted for the door. He slammed it closed just in time to trap Gavin instead, the door shuttering against the force thrown against it from the other side.

“ _Wilson_!” He heard Gavin screech from behind the door, and then the knob started to wiggle violently. But Gavin, for all his power, wasn’t as strong as James if nothing else, and he held the door closed with all of his strength.

“Brett,” He managed, “Uh, do me a favor?”

“Oh, no way, man,” Brett held up his hands, “He’s already gonna be pissed as hell at me.”

“Come _on_ ,” James begged, “I’ve already wasted so much fuckin’ time. Just give me five minutes. A five minute head start.”

“Hundley, don’t you dare!” Gavin yelled through the door and then maybe slammed his fist against the wood.

“I’ll do it,” Asher offered, which...wasn’t that bad an idea. Asher was definitely stronger than James, though he doubted he could keep the door closed for five minutes.

“Great,” James nodded, “Okay. Give me as much time as you can. I just gotta go get the ring and then make myself fuckin’ scarce until tonight.”

Or maybe he would hunt down Aleks and just fucking propose on the raceway before Gavin could stop him.

“Guys, I dunno about this,” Trevor said, “I don’t think Aleks would be, like. Thrilled at either of you.”

“Yeah, well,” James and Asher made the switch as fast as they could and, while the door did briefly open just a bit, Asher was able to wrench it closed again, “As long as I can at least pop the question, he can be as not-thrilled as he wants. Thanks for taking one for the team, Ash.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Asher reminded him, amused, “Now get outta here.”

James got outta there, Gavin’s yelling following him all the way to the door.

“The couch,” He pointed at Lindsey, who didn’t seem to even hear her employer’s squawking and yelling, before he left, “Stays where it is.”

“Yeah, sure,” Lindsey smiled a _Sure, Jan_ kind of smile, but James didn’t have time to enforce the order.

He took the elevator to the first floor instead of directly to the garage, nearly bouncing in place just to get the nervous energy out of his legs. Even if Asher had let Gavin go as soon as James had got to the elevator, he still had at least a thirty second start on him. If the first desk didn’t have the ring, he’d just get the address, like Brett said.

He nearly bolted out of the elevator, fast-walking to the desk just off to the side of the door onto the street, where the familiar doorman was holding the glass open for an elderly woman with three small, white dogs.

The first floor felt more like a fancy hotel than the front office of an apartment building and, honestly, James kind of hated it. He didn’t...belong in this kind of scene. He’d have been more at home in a...normal complex, but, well. The things you do for love.

Things like throwing yourself against the desk hard enough to scare both women on duty.

“Suit.” He said, and then took a second to compose himself, “Aleksandr Free brought a suit down here a couple hours ago. Is it still here?”

“Uh, no, sir,” the woman to the right said, “That was sent out about two hours ago, to the tailor.”

“Of course it was.” James rubbed his face, “You got an address?”

“Just a moment, sir,” The woman on the left tap-tapped something into her computer and James cast another look over his shoulder toward the elevator.

“Oh, here. Let me just print this out for you. Would you like us to call for you?”

“No, just, uh, write the number on the paper. Please. I’m kind of in a hurry.”

“Of course,” The woman smiled pleasantly and James shifted from side to side while the machine slowly printed out what he needed. She hand-wrote a number on the paper with a fancy pen and he at least had the courtesy to not snatch it from her hand when she gave it to him.

“Thanks,” He remembered to say, and then fuckin’ bounced.

Asher must have been able to hold longer than James had thought because the elevator was empty when he took it down to the garage. He almost expected Gavin to be waiting with a gun or something, but instead the doors opened to reveal only a sea of cars that cost more money than most of his jobs had ever paid him, and a Free-free garage.

He and Aleks had parking spots close to the elevator, and next to the silver of Aleks’ designer was his familiar black Escalade. The other stayed parked in the private parking lot below the emergency staircase to be used if needed, but James had just made this one his personal vehicle whether Aleks was with him or not.

He unlocked the driver’s door and climbed in, started the Escalade while he yanked his phone out and dialed the number written on the paper with his thumb.

He listened to the ring as he pulled out of his spot, twisted the wheel one-handed and navigated out of the underground parking lot while he impatiently listened to the ringing on the other line.

“You’ve reached the voice mailbox of -” A chipper voice said after a quiet click and, with more force than necessary, James hung up and cursed as loudly as he could.

“Now, now,” A voice said from his back seat, “No need for that kind of language,”

James, had he been in traffic, probably would have accidentally swerved into it with the force of his jerk. Instead, he just thanked God there was no one coming in the opposite direction of the road leading out to the main road as he accelerated into an empty lane.

“Jesus _Christ_ , you _motherfucker_ -”

“Tsk tsk,” Gavin smiled at him through the rearview mirror, “Not checking the back seat? I’ll have to talk to Geoff about the subpar security he’s paying for. That’s the first rule of getting into any car, Nova.”

“What in the actual, everloving fuck is wrong with you?” James demanded, “Did you break into my car?”

“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Gavin scoffed at him, “I had to get in somehow, didn’t I?”

“Well get _out_!”

“You’re driving, you fool,” Gavin pointed out, “I can’t get out. You’ll have to pull over.”

“I’m not pulling over,” James tightened his hands on the wheel and merged onto the main road. It would lead him north, toward the address printed neatly on the paper in his lap. He was lucky, hit a fast moving train of cars that let him speed, “If I pull over, you’ll pull out something that will get me out of the car, and then I’ll have to hurt you to get back _in_ the car.”

Gavin made a loud, gauffing sound, “ _You_? Hurt me? In your wildest dreams.”

“I’m a trained killer, Free. I could kill you in four different ways just using my thumb.”

“I’m sure you could, dear,” Gavin said with the perfect mix of patronizing and belief, “But I would shoot you before your thumb got anywhere near me.”

“Which is why I’m not pulling the fuck over,” James passed a yellow light just as it turned red and ignored at least four angry honks because of it, “God, do you have to ruin everything?”

“Ruin!? I am saving Aleks’ _life_. Marrying you would be the worst mistake he ever makes.”

“Oh, fuck you! Staying locked up in his tower, where he only gets to talk to you and your crew and party with people he doesn’t give a shit about until he’s balls to the walls in Brett’s upstairs bathroom for the rest of his life would be a pretty shitty mistake, too!”

“He was happy before you came.” Gavin clambered out of the back seat and into the passenger’s seat, nearly kicking James in the head as he did. Finally, a situation where he didn’t seem all that goddamn graceful. “Despite what you may believe, he was perfectly content. He had friends -”

“He had Brett and Trevor -”

“And he had family,” Gavin said over him, raising his voice just enough to be heard. It seemed he’d regained his loss of composure since _breaking into his car_. He should have got the electrified fucking handles. “He was financially taken care of and _thriving_ as a businessman. He wanted for nothing.”

“Don’t,” James slammed on the breaks just before colliding with the van in front of him. He braced himself against the wheel but Gavin hit the dash and had to scramble to get his seatbelt on. “Don’t fuckin’ sit there and say that to me. What kinda happy person sneaks out to a party while they’re a target just to get plastered around a bunch of strangers?”

“Don’t you lecture me on recognizing the signs of anything,” Gavin poked his finger into his arm, so hard that James flinched away from him, “I have always let Aleks make his own choices, and they might not be the best choices but they are his and they are _recoverable_. They are things that his family can help him out of if they blow up in his face. But I will not stand by silently while he signs up to share half of his entirety with the likes of you.”

James had to resist rolling his eyes so hard he lost them, “Do you even know who you are? You’re part of the worst gang since the turn of the fuckin’ century! You’ve killed more people with that viper’s pit of a mouth than I’ve killed with my hands! Don’t pretend like you’re fuckin’ better than us just because you got picked up by Burns while the rest of us had to scrounge around for what we got.”

“Oh, please,” Gavin rolled his eyes, and then looked around, “The spoiled excuse? Be more original, please. I -”

He paused, and then looked around again, more sharply, “Where in the - what are you _doing_!?”

“I,” James sped up again, cutting around two more cars in the fast lane, “Am going to this tailor’s fucking place of fucking business, to pick up my goddamn ring, to give to my goddamn boyfriend when I ask him to marry me!”

“No, you absolute _neanderthal_ ,” Gavin motioned outside, “I mean, what are you doing, you’re taking us into a red zone! These are Vagos neighborhoods.”

“I don’t give a shit about your _red zone_ , I’m going to get that ring.”

“You’ve got me in this car, you insane - if anyone sees my face, you’re going to get shot out of the street!”

“Then duck,” James hunkered down and continued on. There was a smidge of uncertainty when Gavin did just that, yanking some sunglasses out of the drink holder and shoving them onto his face as he sunk down in his chair.

“You’re crazy,” Gavin said, “You’re actually bloody looney. Let me see that address, you -” he snatched the paper off James’ lap and barely glanced at it before making a loud, mournful noise, “Christ, you’re cutting straight through Vagos’ streets to get here. You cut _around_ this area, Wilson!”

“I thought the Fakes owned everything,” James raised an eyebrow, “Scared in your own city? How are you supposed to be rebranding if you don’t even control all of it.”

“For your _information_ ,” Gavin hissed at him, covering the side of his face to the window in one hand, “There are _small pockets_ of the city that we avoid. This is one of them. We’re simply waiting for the old gangs to die out with some honor intact. If someone sees me here, it could ignite a gang war.”

“Then you shouldn’t have snuck into my car. I would have been fine on my own.”

“You really are crackers,” Gavin crumpled up the paper in his hand, “You think they don’t know who you are? Seven months of hanging around my diamond, and not being very subtle about why? You think they don’t have your picture right up there with ours? Turn this SUV around. Let’s go home and talk about this like civilized adults.”

“I will.” James agreed, “As soon as that ring is back in my pocket.”

“Don’t be stubborn,” Gavin sighed, like James was just being rather difficult, “This isn’t a game.”

James didn’t take his eyes off the road, cutting a minivan and merging out of the main road and onto one he was pretty sure was a shortcut. He hadn’t been around these parts since he’d run through the whole city that first month he and the team had been in town for permanent. He’d had his whole team with him then, in their casual wear and a rented family car. Now, he was in a stupid suit, with the stupid Golden Boy in his conspicuous _Carrying Important People_ Escalade.

Fuck his life.

“I have worked with some dangerous people. I’ve killed some dangerous people. I _am_ a dangerous person. Just shut up if you’re gonna beg to go home.”

Furious, and not trying to hide it, Gavin sunk lower in his seat and glared in silence.

-

The tailor’s, as Gavin crossly muttered, was at the very edge of Vagos territory and a thirty minute drive. It was the best place in town for a fast job, and it didn’t turn it’s nose up to any business, no matter the customer, as long as they paid well.

“What needed _altering_ , anyway,” James grumbled as he guided his Escalade into the parking lot of a boutique with _Jamestown Tailoring_ written in fancy cursive on the front window-wall.

“You had black buttons and we needed gold,” Gavin said, sounding very much like he’d like to choke James on said buttons.

“You and your gold,” James shook his head, “I’m gonna lose my goddamn head one day so you chrysophiles can coat it in gold.”

“Please,” Gavin sniffed, “This isn’t Game of Thrones. With your skin tone, gold wouldn’t work. Silver, maybe.”

“You can shove your silver. Get out of the car, you’re coming in with me.” The last thing he needed was Gavin swiping his keys or hotwiring his Escalade and stranding him out here.

James shouldered his way through the door first, ahead of Gavin, and took a quick second to get a hold of his surroundings.

The shop was pretty wide for how it looks on the outside, the entire wall to the left dedicated to suits on racks from ceiling to floor, in an assortment of color and fabrics. The other wall was dedicated to dresses and skirts, also organized by color, in even _more_ fabrics than James had ever really assumed existed. Shelves took up the floor of the place leading to the back, where a long desk cut off a back area. More buttons, thread, and accessories than James thought necessary covered every shelf. He’d have to bring Aleks here at some point, just to see if he actually came in his pants over all the bullshit.

There was a man behind the counter, thin-framed glasses perched at the end of a long nose, narrowed eyes watching them. His face went from pinched to open and welcoming almost as soon as Gavin straightened up next to James, though.

“Mister Free,” He said, the faintest hint of an accent on his voice, “We had no idea you’d be stopping by! Come in, come in, what can we do for you and your associate?”

“White suit,” James cut in before Gavin could, “You switched the buttons out for gold or some shit?”

“Yes,” The man nodded, looking nervous as James stalked closer to the counter, the _s_ of his answer sharp, “I should say, we followed the instructions to the word -”

“Yeah, cool, don’t care. You still got it?”

“No, sir,” The tailor reeled back a little, “We sent it to the cleaners as soon as we were finished. It was a rush order, so -”

“Oh well,” Gavin said, with more cheer than James ever wanted to hear in his stupid, smarmy voice, “That’s that, then.”

“Buzz off, for fuck’s sake. Why don’t you go take a walk?” James snapped over his shoulder, and turned back to the counter man, “When’d you send it off? Would it still be there if I went to pick it up?”

“Well, I -” the man shot Gavin a pleading look, but James wouldn’t be relenting until he got what he wanted. “I would - I suppose? But it’s an independent service from Jamestown, you see. I’m not sure of their timetable.”

“Call them,” James motioned to the phone sitting right next to the sleek laptop open on the counter, with more aggression than might have been called for, “Ask.”

“Yes...sir.” The man glanced between he and Gavin, and James was gonna punch one of these big-nosed fuckers if they didn’t stop having some sort of snooty, eyes-only conversation right across his shoulder.

The guy, at least, picked up the phone and, after flipping through an old roll-book next to the phone - a, no joke, rotary that looked straight out of some animated movie set in old-timey France - dialed - or spun - the number and held the delicate black handset to his ear.

James took the chance to look at Gavin with a raised eyebrow. If Aleks were here, they’d be cackling over this bullshit already, but Gavin didn’t look like it particularly bothered him that this place was using a _rotary phone_ in this decade so maybe it was just James.

“Yes, this is Louis with Jamestown...we have Gavin Free here with an associate. Yes, the white Jinx. Ah, they were looking for a time frame for when they can come to you directly.” The man waited, hummed once, twice, “Yes, perfect. It will be ready in three hours.”

“The - did they check the pockets?”

“Of course they -” _Louis_ scoffed, and then hesitated, “You _did_ check the pockets? Ah, yes. Of course they checked the pockets.”

“Did they find anything?” James ground out, close to just snatching the phone from Louis’ hand to ask himself.

“...no,” Louis said after a second, “Nothing was found in any of the pockets.”

James closed his eyes. “Was anything found in the pockets _here_?”

“ _Sir_!” Louis straightened up, face affronted, “Are you _implying_ -”

“Answer the question,” James pressed his hands to the counter, leaned over it until he was nearly nose-to-nose with Louise, “Now.”

“ _No_ , we did _not_ find anything in _any_ pockets.”

“You got security tapes?”

“Do you have a warrant?” Louis shot back, covering the mouthpiece of the headset.

“I think you’re confused about which side of the law I fall on,” James flashed a dangerous smile and dropped his voice, “Now something of mine has gone missing, and if I don’t get some confirmation that that something didn’t go missing in this cute little place ya’ got goin on here, there ain’t gonna _be_ a cute little place goin on here much fuckin’ longer.”

“Wilson, _really_.” Gavin said with disgust from behind him, “Threatening the poor guy, you barbarian! Over some silly ring you probably bought at _Tiffany’s_ or, God forbid, Kay.”

James ignored him and the sharp sting of his remark. What the fuck ever, he’d known it wasn’t exactly top shelf jewelry like what Aleks was used to, but he’d sunk every dime of savings he’d had into it and he wasn’t gonna let it go just like that.

He didn’t back off but, despite the light sheen of sweat beading at Louis’ temples, neither did he until James slammed both fists on the counter and barked, “ _Now_!”

Louis jumped back, wide-eyed and pale, but, when Gavin just sighed, slowly took his hand off the phone.

“That will be all, thank you, Sally. No, I don’t suppose they will be coming for the suit themselves. Best send it back to its destination on schedule. Yes, good day.”

He hung up the phone sharply and, stiff backed, bent down to tap at his laptop.

“The suit came to us around one-forty five.” he said after a good ten minutes, “We put a rush on your alterations due to the simplicity and were able to send it from our back room within the next hour. Our records indicate it was delivered to the cleaners...at three-ten. If I know those cleaners, it’s being processed at the moment.”

He twisted the screen around so James could see a crisp black-and-white of what he assumed was the back room. A timestamp in the corner marked the scene at a quarter to two and James spotted the familiar suit bag being brought in through a back door along with a few more bags.

“This is the man who delivered it,” Louis pointed out as the man holding the bag casually racked it on an open space, called something they couldn’t hear to the older women bent over a large sewing machine, and left.

The bag was left alone for the next half hour and Louis used the pad of his pointer to speed through the down time, and then through the scene of the women collecting his suit, opening the bag, patting it down once and then beginning to snip the buttons off and mark the spots with pins to be replaced.

“Happy?” Gavin clicked his tongue, “You’ve menaced the best tailor in the city long enough, I think. They didn’t take your silly ring.”

“It isn’t silly.” James said back, not enough aggression to really consider it a harsh response. He was distracted, watching the women work with sharp eyes for the moment that she grabbed the ring from the pocket. Unfortunately, she just finished her job quickly and rebagged the suit. Around two-thirty, a different delivery person grabbed the whole rack and wheeled it out.

“Nothing was taken from your suit,” Louis confirmed, archly pulling the laptop back around.

James...could have apologized. He should, really.

Instead, he leaned his elbows on the counter, put his head in his hands, and thought. If the ring wasn’t here, there was still a chance that it had been taken at the dry cleaners. He’d go there first, check their tapes, too. If that was a dead end, he’d I.D. the messengers and shake them down. His last stop would be the apartment people, though he was pretty sure a place run by the Fakes wouldn’t employ anyone bold enough to steal from clothes that had come from Aleks. If none of those panned out, he’d start at the apartment again and walk the roads to the tailors and sweep for anything shiny. From there, he’d start checking pawn shops for something that even vaguely matched the description. He could replace either of the smaller diamonds relatively easily; hell, he could replace the middle diamond if he had to. A little buffing, whatever, he had a few connections that might be able to do him a solid in a few hours for the right price.

This wasn’t over. He just needed to calm down and approach this like a job. Find the objective, collect the objective, eliminate the targets.

“He’s just like this sometimes,” Gavin was saying when James had finished the game plan in his head and started paying attention again. “Ate too many Tide pods, he did. We tried to tell him, I said _Wilson_ , _don’t put that in your mouth_! But did he listen? Of course not. No one ever listens to me,”

“Shut up.” James interrupted, “Jesus, do you just get off to your own voice? Is that what this is?”

“I’m not the one -”

“Menacing shopekeeps, yeah, I get it.” He yanked out his wallet, dropped fifty bucks on the counter, “Thanks for the information. You got the address of those cleaners?”

“We’ve established that they don’t have your Ring Pop,” Gavin wrinkled up his nose, and the familiarity of the gesture almost made James ill. This man, _this man_ , had raised the man James was trying to marry. What even the fuck. What even the actual fuck.

“Double checking is never a bad idea. You don’t have to come. In fact, don’t. Stay here. Stay away from me. Don’t talk to me.”

“Oh, no,” Gavin held up a hand, “You’re not leaving me here. You’ve flaunted us all across Rancho, if you think I’m staying in this area a moment longer -”

“Fine, then, Jesus, just shut the fuck _up_. Trying to think with you around is like drilling holes in my head.”

“Think? You? Don’t make me laugh, Nova, this is no time for jokes.”

“Here’s that address. Please leave.” Louis said, voice shaking a little, and pushed a piece of paper with a simple, scribbled address written on it. It was on a card he’d ripped out of his roll-book.

James saluted with it in thanks, barely looking at him, and left. Or, at least, started to leave. The sight outside put a stop to that.

“Five of them,” Gavin said helpfully.

“You didn’t mention them,” James said with a tight frown.

“You, oh, how did you say it? Oh so eloquent? Oh, yes. You asked me to shut the fuck up.”

“This isn’t a joke.”

“There are only five,” Gavin smiled winningly, “You’ve fought off more than that, haven’t you?”

 _Not in a while_ , James admitted to himself. Not since he’d taken the relatively low-stress job of guarding Aleks. He still kept in shape, as much as he had before, but he definitely hadn’t been combat training at all aside from bi-weekly boxing matches with Michael.

“Go around back,” He said without turning around. He could only see three of them but in this, at least, he could trust Gavin. Two men were standing a couple feet away from the driver’s side of the Escalade, facing each other and sharing a cigarette; both of them wore baggy jerseys over long sleeved shirts, and khaki shorts capable of hiding plenty of weaponry. The third within view was loitering on his phone just within sight of the front windows. He was dressed more formally, slacks and a nice polo, but the fleeting looks he shared with the two by the Escalade placed him firmly on their team.

If James had to guess, he’d say the other two were just out of sight on the other side of the building.

“No, thanks,” Gavin cleared his throat, casual and relaxed in his movements. It was only because he’d made such a big deal out of it earlier that James knew he was nervous. Aleks was a master at the game of hiding, but Gavin was far beyond him yet and it showed. James couldn’t spot even one tell.

“Seriously. Head around back,” A second’s hesitation and he tossed Gavin his keys, “I’ll lead them away. Jump in the car, head out. I’ll call an Uber or something.”

Gavin caught the keys, gave him a patient look, “Mighty fine of you, good sir. But, of the two of us, I’m the bigger fish. They won’t follow you if they know I’m around.”

He tossed the keys back, and James caught them with a rough breath. “You’re where he fuckin’ gets it. Never listens. Never fuckin’ listens.”

“Excuse you,” Gavin pressed a hand to his chest, “He gets that from Geoffrey. I listen to _good_ plans.”

James didn’t waste time arguing. He still had things to do before the trail went cold. He didn’t have time to wait around for back up, either from his team or from more Vagos.

“Fine. New plan. You got a gun?”

“Of course.”

“You any good with it?”

“Would you like me to show you?” Gavin asked sweetly and James sneered at him.

“We both go around back. There are probably two to the left, we can take ‘em. The Escalade’s been fortified tighter than most military vehicles. That should be enough to get us out of here mostly unscathed unless they’re toting more than a few big-ass bullets. Think you can handle that?”

“Still not great,” Gavin shrugged, “But it’s all we got, I s’pose.”

“Yo, Louis,” James turned back around, smile thin as he found Louis watching them with wary, worried eyes. The sweating had become worse. “We’re gonna need one more favor.”

“We aim to please, sir,” Louis said dryly and used his thin tie, more a strip of fabric than anything, to mop his brow. James kinda liked him.

Two minutes later found he and Gavin on the other side of the building, backs pressed to the lavender bricks that made up the back of _Jamestown Tailoring_.

Gavin had pulled his gun while they’d been ducked behind the large trash can just outside the door but James held up a hand to stop him from continuing. Instead, he left Gavin crouched down and stood up slowly, peeking over the top of the trash can to check for a watchman. There wasn’t, but that wasn’t too surprising. The building was tucked into a lot along a busy street and, while to the right of it was a path wide enough for a garbage truck to get back here, the left was a thin alley with not much going for it. They were trapped.

“Stick close,” He dropped back into a crouch, “Don’t shoot until you’re _sure_ you need to. The last thing we need is a gunshot getting us more attention.”

Even as he said it, he wished he had his own piece. There was one in the Escalade’s glove compartment, his emergency pistol, but he’d left his favored handgun at home. Somehow, he hadn’t thought getting his engagement ring back was going to require using high-powered machinery to hurl bits of metal at other humans. More fool him.

“You do realize that I’m a Fake, right?” Gavin stared at him, unimpressed, “I am _perfectly_ capable of taking care of myself. You aren’t on a job right now.”

“Instinct,” James shrugged, because it was. Instinct, and the fact that - like him or not - this was Gavin with him. Gavin in danger.

“Coast’s clear,” Gavin said breezily and left the vague safety of the trash can to edge his way to the alley. James let him take point, since he was the one with the gun, but he followed close and kept himself calm. He felt defenseless, like easy pickings, but he wasn’t going to let it overwhelm him.

It took a few minutes, but they were both professional enough not to lose patience. It was slow-going, but they eventually made it to the mouth of the alley and, after a quick peak, Gavin nodded his head at James to take a look.

James, low to the ground, glanced around the corner. His suspicions had been correct and there were only two men on this side, both with their backs to the alley while they bent against the gentle breeze to try to light cigarettes and look casual. They were just _barely_ off their turf, it wasn’t like anyone was gonna call the cops - but, then again, this was a pretty classy place for being where it was located. Maybe someone _would_ call the cops if they weren’t careful.

That decided it. He hadn’t seen any guns, not that that meant that there _weren’t_ any, but they hadn’t been flashing any metal and they hadn’t stormed the place. James was willing to bet that these guys were pushing their luck in the hopes of a big check, but that they wanted to do it as quiet as they could. A beat down in the parking lot, no shots that might get reported. Dirty, not particularly well-thought-out, but workable enough. James had done it a few times in his day.

A look exchanged with Gavin told him that they’d drawn similar conclusions. Gavin still had the gun pointed down, finger firmly off the trigger, and James stood up and motioned back a little bit. Gavin followed without argument.

“I’ll grab the one on the left,” he whispered, “You take care of the one on the right. We can do this quiet, if we play it right.”

“We’ll see,” Gavin checked his clip and nodded, “Yep, we’ll see. Whoopsies.”

“What does _whoopsies_ mean?”

“Forgot to change the clip,” Gavin tapped the barrel of the gun against his own temple, “Ha! No bullets.”

“Are you -” James had to pause, take that in. “Are you for real?”

“You could look yourself,” Gavin offered, “Don’t worry, Nova. I’m pretty good at pretend.”

“We,” James looked around, trying to spot the hidden cameras that had to be around here, “I. How have you survived this long?”

“My beauty and wit,” Gavin fluttered his eyelashes, gold-dusted and thick, and James really did not like that he was attractive at all, not at _all_. They weren’t biologically related, but the similarities were just...too much. James, not for the first time today, wished he could go back to this morning, when his ring had been safe and so had his boyfriend, and his future in-law had been not in his presence.

“I’d hate for a _loaded_ gun to take both those away from you,” He hissed and then shoved a hand across his forehead, thumb roughly wiping sweat from the bridge of his nose. Damn this city and its neverending heat. “Fine. Fine. Play pretend. Whatever. Just go for the one on the right.”

“We’ll see,” Gavin repeated, ominous, and James just let that roll off of him like water. He didn’t have the patience for this. Maybe it was a good thing Gavin hadn’t had any bullets - it took away the temptation for James to eat a few.

They returned to the mouth of the alley gradually and, after another look to make sure nothing had changed - one of them had managed to light his cigarette but was still facing away, checking out the Escalade, but the other was cursing through clenched lips - they made their move.

James took four steps out of the alley and caught the guy checking his Escalade out with a headlock, dragged him back into the alley and took him to the ground near silently. The guy started to struggle almost immediately but James held on with the determination of a pitbull and just vaguely trusted that Gavin was taking care of his guy.

Strangling someone until they passed out wasn’t easy, despite what the movies said. And that was a statement that quite a few people had seen by now, but it didn’t quite do the truth justice. It was a brutal way to take someone down, denying them oxygen until their bodies shut down. Every time James ended up on his back, using his arms to choke the life out of someone as they flopped around on top of him in a vain effort to save themselves from him, he was reminded of how fragile humans were. Stop oxygen from getting to the brain, and it would shut down. Hit the chest just right, and the heart would be disrupted. Palm someone’s nose the right way and you could spear their brain - though that one was just on Anna’s authority.

Somehow, even as the body he was clinging to started to grow sluggish, no one tried to rescue his victim. He spared a glance toward Gavin, and found that he hadn’t much left the mouth of the cave. Instead, he’d brought his mark closer and had the gun to the back of his head. Both of them were watching he and _his_ mark - one bored, the other with wide, scared eyes. Jesus, it was a kid. The one James was choking out probably wasn’t much older. Sad.

There was one more weak jerk, a slow fist brushing at his face, and then the body went limp. Without much feeling, James rolled it off of him and rocked to his feet without bothering to look at who he’d let go of. He probably hadn’t killed him.

It would alert their Vagos friends if he just unlocked the Escalade with his fob, so he crouch-walked over to the passenger’s door and slipped the key into the lock. It gave with a gentle _click_ and, with a deep, slow inhale, he pulled the handle, lifted up a little, and silently cracked the door open.

Well. Now or never.

He nodded at Gavin, who nodded back and then casually shoved his mark out of the way and bolted from the alley. James yanked the door the rest of the way open and dove into the seat, scrambling inelegantly over the console to get into the driver’s seat while Gavin shoved in after him and slammed the door. He locked the door behind him and James didn’t bother looking to see how the Vagos were reacting. He could hear yelling, an angry _thunk_ against his window, and then he was turning the key to start the ignition and squealing out of the parking lot.

“Well,” Gavin straightened out his tie, and then loosened it, “That sure was exciting! More than I expected to get today!”

James didn’t answer. He just pulled into the street and, carefully following every rule of the road he knew, merged back onto the main street within a few turns.

“Now that that’s settled,” Gavin clapped, “Take the scenic route back home, I think. Let’s just skirt the Vagos, cut our losses, all that.”

“I’m not going back yet,” James pulled the roll-book card out of his pocket and unfolded it with one hand, keeping the wheel straight with the other. He didn’t know recognize this road, so he tapped it into the GPS sitting on the dash awkwardly and waited while it built up the route. This place was on the edge of the city, but if he skirted along Rancho he’d cut his time in half.

“Of course we’re going back,” Gavin said, like he was being odd, “We were nearly kidnapped by the Vagos. We’ve flirted with a turf war, and the ring is missing. Sucks to suck, try again next year. He’s got one of these annually, you know.”

“I’ll drop you off somewhere,” James looked around, “Call an Uber to meet us at the address. Head back to the penthouse or whatever you do when you’re not sucking the life out of people.”

“You can not be serious,” Gavin steepled his fingers in his lap, empty gun on the floor by his feet, “Wilson, there is a _dangerous gang_ gunning for this SUV and the very beautiful head inside of it. And you. This is no time for funny shenanigans, and that’s saying a lot coming from me!”

“I need to check the tapes at the dry cleaners,” James tried to explain, even though he knew it was useless, “And if that doesn’t pan out, I need to get the names of the guys who delivered to and fro and what the fuck ever.”

“You are dead set on this, aren’t you? Fine. Fine! I will Uber back to the penthouse and when Aleks comes home and asks where you are, you know what I’ll say? Your sorry excuse of a beau has gone on a wild goose chase because he misplaced the plastic ring he got for a quarter at the grocery, that is what I’ll say!”

“You haven’t even _seen_ it!” James finally slapped his hands on the wheel for emphasis, “You keep calling it - you keep acting like it’s some cheap toy! It’s _not_!”

“Excuse me if I don’t believe you are capable of differentiating between a real gem and a knock-off, Mister I Wear The Same Clothes Until I Stain Them.”

“Obviously I can fuckin’ tell when something is _fake_. There’s a reason I don’t like you, for example.”

“Oh, how original. You’ve cut me so deep, _Nova_.”

“Deep enough that you zip those fat lips?”

“ _Fat_ -” Gavin glowered, “I’ll have you know -”

And it’s not that James _wanted_ to know whatever it was that Gavin was about to lecture him on. It’s just that he would probably have preferred it to having his Escalade suddenly tapped. They both lurched forward, and he only just stopped himself from slamming on the brakes. He’d just been following the GPS, hadn’t been paying much more attention than that, and he very quickly realized his mistake. They were being followed, and he wasn’t on a particularly busy road he could weave through to escape.

“I was the driver,” he grumbled, glaring into his rear view at the purple van sniffing his anus, “What’s your excuse?”

“Your fat head,” Gavin said, like a mature adult, and then popped the glove box open to pull out the gun case inside.

“How did you -”

“We’ve talked about stupid questions, Nova.” Gavin opened the case with ease and begun to assemble the piece he’d revealed, “Watch the road. If you make me listen to _recalculating route_ more than once, I’ll hurl that machine right out the window, I’ll warn you now.”

“Careful,” James reached forward and turned the volume on the GPS down to zero, well aware that he wouldn’t be getting anywhere near to the cleaners until they’d shaken their pursuers. “That one has actual bullets in it. Wouldn’t want you to blow your brains out in my car.”

“I’m sure you’d mourn me,” Gavin twisted around in his seat to get a better look at the van, which had backed up when the Escalade had wavered. It would be back, soon, though, and James was ready for it. “Bullet resistant, you said?”

“The highest grade Geoff would sink into it. They’d have to have a pretty high powered rifle to get through anywhere on this baby.” James shrugged, and took a sharp turn just as the van sped up to tap them again. The van skidded forward while James disappeared down the side road but James didn’t think that meant that they’d escaped. “Are we even still in Rancho? I thought they stuck to their pocket.”

“High risk, high reward,” Gavin turned back around and pulled his sun visor down, flipped the mirror open so he could see behind them at a different angle than the rearview mirror. James was pretty sure he also checked his make up.

He took a few more turns, fast at first and then slowing down so he wouldn’t stick out so much as he found another busy street with more cars and headed north on it.

“So, just to reiterate,” Gavin counted off on his hand, “The ring’s been lost, we were almost kidnapped in a parking lot, we were chased, and we are still no closer to finding the ring. Can we head back to the penthouse now?”

“I told you to set up a car at the cleaners,” James said stubbornly, “I’m not going back without it.”

“And you say _Aleks_ is reckless!”

“How does Michael put up with you? He’s got a worse temper than me, how in the actual fuck does he put up with you?”

“Don’t you dare bring Michael into this conversation, Wilson!”

“Well -” James started, starting to raise his voice again, only to stop as he realized his phone was vibrating in his pocket.

Shooting Gavin a stern look, he pulled it from his pants and answered it.

“Yeah?”

“Well, that is definitely a way to answer my call,” Aleks said, sounding amused.

“Here, let me try again.” James found himself smiling even as he glanced into the rearview to check for the van, “Hello, light of my fuckin’ life, how is your day goin’?”

Gavin turned from his own mirror to look at him sharply, but he ignored it. The last thing he needed was Aleks getting suspicious and calling around. Trevor was a weak fuckin’ link and James had intimidated him into keeping his secret until now but he doubted he’d be able to hold up if Aleks started interrogating him.

“Much better, I like that a lot.” Aleks laughed, and he sounded exhilarated. He must have still been on the track with the Lads already.

“I live to please,” James caught sight of faded purple to his right, the van coming into view a good four cars behind them, “I thought you’d be goin’ two-ten in a German Twenty-Nineteen right about now.”

“Been there, done that,” Aleks said and James could imagine the hand motion he was making, like he was swatting away the very idea, “Ray and Michael are thumb warring over who gets to pick the next car and Jeremy went to pick up the chili dogs so I figured I’d call and make sure you and Gav haven’t killed each other.”

“I told you,” James jerked the wheel and accelerated, ducking the Escalade through a barely-passable gap between a lime green Honda and a white Ford, “Me ‘n’ ol’ Gavvy have an agreement. No fights today. We’re being downright civil.”

Gavin scoffed from where he was staring daggers at the phone, like he wanted to snatch it out of James’ hand but didn’t want to risk it while he was going ninty in a sixty zone.

“I’ll believe that when I see it, bitch,” Aleks scoffed too and, wow, that was eerily similar.

“Has anyone told you that you don’t have enough faith? We can be mature adults. We’re both older than you by a lot.”

“You really aren’t.”

“Shut up, no one asked you,” James looked around for the van and followed Gavin’s pointed finger to - a truck, instead, about the height of the Escalade, with a sturdy looking cab. Two guys - the jerseys - sat in the bed of the pick-up and James didn’t like the way they were looking at him through his windshield. These babies could take a few hits from some fuck-off bullets but he wouldn’t be willing to test them against a couple shotgun slugs to the face.

Aleks made a rude noise into the phone, “You never have to _ask_ me, James. I give my thoughts to you, no charge. Use them wisely.”

“ _Your_ thoughts and _wise_ don’t go in the same sentence, Aleksandr,” James used his shoulder to hold the phone to his ear so he could get two hands on the wheel. Gavin was playing lookout, one second checking their rear and the next the truck as James grew every closer to what he was sure was going to be a truly unwanted confrontation. He just wanted his _ring_.

“That cuts, babe,” Aleks sighed, no doubt a hand pressed ver his heart, “That hurts a lot. On my _birthday_.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll kiss it better when I see you.” Gavin made a grossed out face at him and James actually choked on a laugh, barely swallowing it back.

“What?” Aleks asked, voice fond, “Are you laughing at the thought of kissing me, motherfucker?”

“No,” James cleared his throat, “No, I think we’ve established how much I like kissing you.”

“And dating me,” Aleks continued while Gavin was gagging into his hand, “And _liking_ me.”

“Conceited,” James sing-songed, mostly because he knew it would make Aleks laugh again.

“It’s not conceited if it’s true, is it? I don’t think so. Besides, confidence is sexy.”

“Are you trying to look sexy on a race track filled with no one but your family?”

“Well, there’s the road crew and I think this chick’s got the hots for me...” Aleks trailed off leadingly, but it was teasing and James found himself laughing despite the stress of the situation.

“Jesus, when you said I should organize a gangbang, I didn’t think you had a whole road crew in mind -”

“James Wilson!” Gavin nearly shrieked and James slammed on his breaks just in time to avoid rear-ending that lime green Honda, a coughing giggle breaking through despite his best attempt to hold it back.

“Is that Gavin!?” Aleks yelped, “Did you say that in front of _Gavin_!?”

“No,” James chortled, letting go of the wheel to cover his face for a second, trying to gather himself, “Of course not. Maybe a little. Yes, I did.”

“ _James_!” Aleks snapped, around the same time Gavin did. It was like having an unwanted double in his other ear, but it was so fucking funny that he almost didn’t mind.

“The gangbang was a _joke_!” Aleks yelled through the phone and James had to take the phone from his face so he could laugh as hard as he was without accidentally braining himself with it. He could hear Aleks hissing something at him, and Gavin was simmering in a righteous fury and James would be paying for this later but damn if it wasn’t worth it right now. This was good. He needed this relief.

“What are you guys even doing!?” Aleks was yelping when James finally had enough control to bring the phone back to his ear. They were in a traffic jam in a crowded road so he wasn’t much worried about being attacked just yet. If they’d been willing to pull so bold a move, they would have started shooting when they’d had them on the side road. It wasn’t making his journey any faster, but they were at least safe for now.

“I, uh. Had to run an errand before tonight and Gavin had some concerns so he invited himself along.”

“Oh god,” Aleks groaned, “You’re gonna be back in time for the party, right? Who’s in charge at home if you’re both out? James, what if they move the _couch_ -”

“Dude, chill the fuck out,” James said, as soothing as he really ever got, “Brett’s still there, and I told them not to move the couch. Worse case scenario, they _do_ move it and we just get some people in to move it back. What you should really be worried about is that little rat dog of yours getting decorated like she’s a part of the light show. The cat’s at least got the brains to hide.”

“You didn’t say _Yes, dear, I wouldn’t miss your birthday party for the world_. I’m introducing you to Uncle Burnie and Uncle Gus and - I’ll admit, I’ll go ahead and admit it, this has really thrown me. Am I having a anxiety attack right now because you left the apartment with Gavin?”

“You’re just nervous,” James tapped his fingers on the wheel, “I promise, _dear_. I will get both of us back to the penthouse in time for this party and you can introduce me to whoever the fuck you want, provided that they aren’t gonna punch me over the whole red diamond thing or try to have me killed for the whole being your boyfriend thing.”

“So cut introducing you to Uncle Burnie,” Aleks joked, sounding just calmer.

“Okay, I’ll give you _one_ punch, just because I know how much Burns means to you. You’re lucky you're cute, diamond boy. ”

There was a short burst of silence on the other line, a soft laugh that made his chest warm.

“...you know, uh.” Aleks’ voice was soft,flustered, when he next spoke, “I mean. I love you. You know that, right?”

James lost his grin, felt his face settle into something that he only really felt when he was talking to Aleks - had ever really felt when he was talking to Aleks. Neither of them said that often; it wasn’t particularly new, but it was private and comforting. A reminder of why this ring was so important to him.

“Yeah, I…” He glanced at Gavin, who was giving him a piercing, searching sort of look. “I know. I love you, too. If Mister Midas over here can’t scare me off, Burns isn’t gonna, either, okay? Relax, have fun with your fancy cars and take your mud baths or whatever.”

“If you insist,” And Aleks was back, more vibrantly loud than before, “Please don’t kill each other or yourselves. I’ve seen you both drive, and I don’t even want to know who’s behind the wheel.”

“I could say the same for you, asshole.”

“But we’re in a _controlled environment_. Really, this is for science.”

“Speaking of science, what did your mad scientist of a Vagabond take you shopping for?”

“Oh, shit, dude, get this,” Aleks’ voice went high, “Geoff wants to build us a _cabin_.”

“A cabin?” James squinted his eyes, confused, “What? Why? Us?”

“Yes, _us_ ,” Aleks answered, “Why would I go to a cabin without you?”

“Why would you go to a cabin? You hate going outside.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I love going outside. As long as there aren’t a lot of bugs or bears or shit.”

“We’ve gotten off track here.” James pointed out, wondering how long he’d be able to go before Gavin really did snatch the phone from him.

“Oh,” James could almost see him blinking as he recalibrated, “Yeah, the cabin. I dunno, he just said it was a nice vacation place if we wanted to get away for the weekend. He and Ry took me to this architect's place and we designed a lot of it. We put a pin in it until next week, though, I wanted you to be there.”

“Aleks, I think it’s your...cabin.” Jesus, most people got lego houses for their birthday, not actual houses. “You design it how you want it. I’ve lived in a little of everything, I really won’t be picky, here.”

“No,” Aleks insisted, “I want you there. Okay?”

“...yeah, okay.” James gave in, wondering if it was weird that he was so touched. “Does Geoff know you’ve co-opted me into designing this thing?”

“Of course he knows,” Aleks insisted, “It was Ryan’s idea to pin it until next week instead of just calling you then. He says he’ll stop by in a couple days to help us brainstorm.”

“That’s nice of him. Does he want a dungeon?”

“Please, the guest bedroom doubles as the dungeon in a cabin, James.”

“Yeah?” James asked, raising an eyebrow, “I didn’t learn that in boy scouts.”

“You didn’t learn anything in boy scouts. You weren’t a scout.”

“I could have been, had someone funneled my youth toward a positive direction.”

“I’m willing to bet you were born crooked, my guy.”

“Don’t you have a car to crash?”

“Please, between the two of us, we both know who’d crash first. But I do have to go, Jeremy’s back with the chili dogs. Tell Gav I said hi and get home on time.”

“You’re gonna be shitting most of the party,” James said in warning and response, and Aleks made a loud, annoyed noise and hung up.

“Classy goodbye,” Gavin said primly, like James didn’t know about Geoff’s ongoing attempts to fart into everything Gavin owned and-or finger his asshole through his pants.

“If you think that’s classy, you should see our sex life.”

Gavin’s entire face screwed up, brow pinched. James hoped the threat would keep him quiet for a long time. It, sadly, didn’t last longer than half a minute.

“Burnie doesn’t like you.” Gavin replied, introducing the subject abruptly.

“None of you like me,” James shrugged, “I’m not here for Burns.”

“You know how he got that name?” Gavin side-eyed him but James refused to fall for the bait.

“He was born with it, I’m assuming.”

“Because he burns the people he kills. Less evidence that way.”

“If you can get the fire hot enough,” He shrugged, “It’s hard to do that in the field. Need special equipment. Live and learn, huh?”

Gavin just sneered.

The traffic jam cleared up in the ensuing silence, the Escalade inching ever forward until, between one moment and the next, they were free again. On the one hand, it meant that he was that much closer to his destination. On the other, it meant that their two tails could more easily get to them.

Like the van, which had lost relevance what with the phone call and the possible shotgun to the face threat from the pick-up. James was reminded of its existence within seconds, though.

It found its way to the lane next to theirs, matching speed with James. The windows were down and he could see the kid Gavin had held up in the driver’s seat and the guy with the slacks in the passenger’s seat, talking on a phone as he checked out the Escalade. Probably looking for weaknesses in the shell, James would guess.

“Anything about this thing you need to tell me about?”

James looked at Gavin again, tried to gauge what was happening with him, but there was little to go off of. His face was calm, his shoulders relaxed and arms loose where his hands were folded in his lap, the gun resting under his palms. The least he could do was look stressed out, shit.

“Everything’s enforced, or should be. We took it to a place Jack recommended, I haven’t tested it myself.”

“If Jack says they’re good, then they’re good,” Gavin shrugged, looking straight ahead at the truck. It and the van were probably in communication, trying to box them in, “When we get away from these two, you are _taking me home_. If you need to go on this fool’s errand, be my guest, but I won’t be put in any more danger without my crew.”

“I’ve got,” James checked the time and then pulled a risky maneuver that got three cars honking at him but also managed to break him out of the square he was being boxed into , “A little over three hours to track this thing down. You can find your own ride home, since you’re the one that found your own way into my fucking car.”

“If you would just _think_ about this, you’d see that there’s no need to find ‘this thing,’” Gavin used air quotes, which maybe wouldn’t have pissed him off so much if it had been anyone else, “Aleks will not be getting married without my approval and we both know it. You, in case I haven’t been clear here, _do not have my approval_.”

“We’ll see.” James hunkered down, ready to fight it out, “He’s surprised you before.”

“Yes, once he got a tattoo when he was underage and felt so bad about it that he called me from the parlor afterward,” Gavin agreed, tone patronizing, “But, of course, getting married is completely different. Much less important than a tattoo.”

“He’s stuck it out with me this long,” James tightened his hands on the wheel and then loosened them, not wanting to be locked up if he had to make any sudden moves, “I’ll take my chances.”

“And what will you do when he rejects you, hm?” Gavin didn’t look at him either, like he, too, had buckled in for the big blow out. Why they were doing this in the middle of a car chase, James couldn’t say, but there it was.

“Then I’ll wait,” He shrugged, “As long as I have to.”

“Then wait _now_!” Gavin raised his voice, just a little, “It’s not even been a year, Wilson.”

“Seven months, a year, ten years, what does it _matter_!?” James shot him a glaring look, “I know how I feel now, and I know how he feels. I don’t need to wait longer just to test it out, I fuckin’ know my own fuckin’ feelings,”

“And what if you don’t? He’s still recovering from a very traumatic experience and you are a _crutch_ , Wilson, what part of that isn’t clear to you? He isn’t in love with you, he’s in love with the idea of safety that you’ve given him.”

“Excuse -”

“And _you_! You aren’t in love with him, you idiot, you two imprinted on each other during an intense, life-threatening situation and you’ve continued to cultivate this unhealthy _thing_ -”

“If you like the way your teeth fit in your mouth, you will _shut it up_ this goddamn second.” James cut him off, accelerated until even his stomach was feeling it. The cars around them blurred as they zoomed past, but the truck and van both tried to match him and he couldn’t find a way to pass the truck yet.

Gavin seemed to read the threat he’d made pretty obvious, because he stopped talking, but he looked mutinous and James wanted to punch his teeth in on the principle of it all, anyway.

James didn’t say anything at first. The rage under his skin had appeared so suddenly at at near boiling that it made his body feel tight. Trying to stay relaxed had flown right out the window and his knuckles were nearly white where he clutched the steering wheel. He had to wait, wait until he’d managed to cool all of the spiteful, mean things he wanted to spit out in response. Instead, he waited until he could control himself enough to speak.

“Say what you want about me, about _people like me_ , whatever bullshit makes you feel like a big man in charge,” Gavin made a protesting noise so James just spoke over him with a louder voice, nearly hurling the words at him, “But don’t you ever fucking say that I don’t love Aleks again or you won’t be able to say anything for a long-ass time.”

Gavin didn’t have anything to say to that, and James could only hope that would be the end of it from him. He doubted it, but he could hope.

He slipped between a Subaru and a Ford and then passed another car and cut in front to put more people between him and the van but, when he tried to find the truck again, he couldn’t.

“Where -”

“I don’t know,” Gavin cut in, voice quiet and focused, “I think it disappeared at the last light. Maybe they’re late for tea.”

“Somehow, I doubt it,” James looked around again, took in the thinning number of cars still around and the next few blocks of lights down the road they were heading. He could turn here, head farther away from Rancho, but it would be going in the opposite direction to where he wanted to go. They only had a few more miles to go along Rancho’s border, though, and then he could put some distance between them and still stay on track. He could _see_ his destination, a long road of intersections with four or five traffic lights that would break up the straight path, and then a sharp right that took them away.

On the one hand, he had Gavin in the car and that made things a lot more complicated. If he were alone, he would just gun it and run the reds, but he wasn’t alone. Hell, had it just been Joe Shmoe or something, he would have gunned it. But this was Gavin.

On the other hand, a few green lights and he’d be fifteen minutes away from the cleaners. And Gavin had made the decision to take the risks that this trip involved when he’d snuck into the car. He was a Fake, after all.

He slowed to a stop at the first light, the purple van snug behind him but unable to do anything about it. This car was armed to the fuckin’ nines, as long as they were inside it they were safe. He stayed in the straight lane.

“You stubborn…” Gavin trailed off and tightened his hold on the gun in his lap. “If I die, I’m haunting you. You’ll never have a moment alone again.”

“Fine,” James shook his shoulders out and pressed on the gas as the light changed, “We’ll save an empty seat in your honor at the wedding. Maybe balance a framed picture of you on the seat.”

“Nightmares,” Gavin snarked back, “So many nightmares. And creaky floorboards an’ chains rattlin’ all bloody night long. That’s your future if you get me offed.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” James felt the van nudge him again and the whole Escalade jerked forward with the force of it, but he ignored it and straightened the wheel out as he came up to the next light. It was a yellow so he sped through it just before it turned again but found himself at another red on the third light, anyway. “Who set the fucking timing for these things, Jesus,”

“Probably an intelligent person who also thinks this is a terrible idea and that you should be stopped.”

“Oh, you now fuckin’ what -” James started, pressing on the gas as the light turned green again. He turned to Gavin to say something - biting, probably, something very rude that would get him to shut up again. And then he saw the truck and had just enough time to slam on the gas.

It didn’t get them out of the way, not completely, but the truck slammed front-first into the back passenger side instead of directly into Gavin. The shock of the hit was - sudden. He’d seen it coming, but his body hadn’t had time to react outside of an instinctive _get him out of the way_ response.

One second, he was - well, not in a crash, and the next he was. He didn’t even hear the airbags deploying, just felt the sudden punch to the face and chest that rammed him back into his chair and forced his hands off the wheel. He felt the car spinning out of control, felt it tip and tetter on two wheels for a hot second as it slammed against the road barriers protecting the line between street and sidewalk, felt it decide it wasn’t going to fall over quite yet and land with a _thump_ back on all fours. He also felt his body following each of those movements, his seat belt keeping him in his seat but at the expense of what he could imagine would be some really ugly bruises tomorrow.

The inside of the car filled with powder and smoke fast, leaving him choking and coughing as he shoved the airbag out of his face. He tried to remember, tried to think, but his head hurt. His mouth was warm, and so was his chin and down his throat. The airbag was stained with red when he finally managed to punch it down. His mouth tasted like copper and he was - salivating way too much. Without thinking, he swallowed hard and tasted the copper as it slid down his throat. Almost immediately, his mouth started to fill again so he swallowed again.

He reached to his right, felt an arm, a shoulder.

“Nova,” Gavin groaned, sounding more pissed off than hurt, “You goddamn, mother-shi _ting_ -”

He had to stop because he was coughing too and James started to reach for the window button and only remembered why he shouldn’t do that when his fingers had just found it.

They would be out there, waiting for him to give them an opening. But they both needed _air_ , and the smoke and powder filling the car was going to fucking hurt in a second if they didn’t get some fresh air in here. Deciding to take the risk, he pressed the button - and nothing happened.

Christ. Christ - fucking - shitting Jesus _motherfucking_ Christ -

He punched the wheel and then felt the stinging around his hand. He brought one, and then the other, closer to his face so he could see them through the smog of shit the airbags had released and realized that the airbags had _burnt_ the insides of his wrists, just where his sleeve ended.

“Open a door,” Gavin gagged, and James blinked at him and realized his eyes were streaming. Gavin - oh, Gavin had a sensitive -

“I’m going to -” Gavin gagged again and James unbuckled his seatbelt, reached over Gavin for the door handle and managed to shove it open just as Gavin leaned over and outside of the car and threw up. The smoke cleared almost instantly, finally allowing James to take a few deep breaths. His head, sadly, didn’t clear nearly as fast, but with real air he could at least get his bearings better and take stock.

Okay. His nose was - he felt it - not broken, but bleeding pretty profusely, and fucking painful. His wrists were burnt, but nothing series, and he could feel bruising that would form soon enough, but otherwise he was...unscathed. His neck hurt from the whiplash, but he’d get that checked out later, when they were safe.

“He gave Gavin just enough time to spit again, and then slammed his door shut again and locked it manually.

“What...happened,” Gavin finally said, sounding dazed. He hadn’t bothered punching his own bag down, but it had deflated completely in the seconds since it had gone off.

“The truck came back from tea,” James shook his head, and then looked around. None of the windows had shattered - because he’d paid good fucking money from Geoff’s pocket so that they wouldn’t - but he didn’t doubt that his own door was fucked, and - yes, the back seat on Gavin’s side was fucked. Through that window - which was, unfortunately, shattered on the outside, and now opaque from the cracks - was useless, he could see through the back window that they had been spun from one end of the intersection to the other, that all of the other cars had stopped, and there was a small crowd gathering. The truck, front end fucking obliterated and both doors open to expose an empty cab, was behind them, stopping him from backing up.

When he turned back around, it was to see the van backing up to pin them in. Great.

“The gun,” He remembered, but Gavin held it up, clutching it loosely in a hand way too steady for having just been smashed across an intersection.

From behind, there was a _thack_ and James jerked around - hissed at the painful pinching in his neck at the movement - in time to see the back window explode into the same thick spiderweb of cracks as the other. He had a second to be confused, and then he saw one of the guys from the tailor’s, one of the jerseys, come around to his side with a hammer and swing it hartilty into the back window. The glass immediately shattered - probably a piece of ceramic attached to that fucking hammer. The plastic would hold but if they smashed out the windshield he wouldn’t be able to see where he was fucking going.

“Hold onto something.” He warned, and then grabbed the shift and put the Escalade in reverse. He slammed onto the gas and, with a squealing grind against the barricade they were still embedded against, he backed into the truck with a loud crash.

He shifted back into drive and, with another pedal to the metal moment, ran his Escalade into the back of the van and sent it skidding several feet away. His hood bent up and he could only hope that nothing was damaged - it _shouldn’t_ have been, with all the security modifications, but he had no idea if the crash-and-twirl had damaged anything internally. And he didn’t have time to worry about it now.

Gavin had braced himself with his feet spread on the floor of the car and both hands on the dash, the gun tucked under one thigh. James kind of wished he had that luxury as he tried not to get whipped around by the force of his shifts He backed up again, pushing the truck even farther back to the tune of screaming and cursing, and then he sped the fuck out of there.

The last two lights were empty, everyone having either moved on or stopped to see what was going on with the crowd at the other stop light. He didn’t even slow when he ran the red light on the last one, just wheeled into a hard right and didn’t take his foot off the gas until he was forced to by the number of cars on the road. With two thirds of his hind vision fucked, he couldn’t go particularly fast if he didn’t want to cause an accident himself.

For the next few minutes, they were both quiet.

James reached forward, turned up the volume on the GPS again and set back.

“Turn right on - Recalculating route -”

“Oh, for God’s sake!” Gavin hissed and reached forward to turn the sound all the way down again, “You’ve been doing just _peachy_ without some AI twat whispering sweet nothings in your ear!”

James, deciding to pick his battles, didn’t push.

They were a mile from their destination, a _mile_ , when the next disaster hit. The GPS took James through a residential street, nice enough for what James was used to but no doubt too low-class for Gavin to be comfortable, and he was just beginning to think that luck was turning around for him when, with surprisingly little noise, the entire Escalade sagged to one side. James could feel himself sinking, see the way the world tilted a little, and registered _flats_ around the same time that Gavin said, “You are the bane of my existence and I hope that you step on more shards of whatever just did that.”

He, again, didn’t bother answering.

He thought about leaving it. Honestly, they had metal wheels under the rubber, the SUV could technically keep going for as long as he needed it to. He’d said _what’s the point of armoring up the whole thing if a bullet to the tire takes it out_ and Geoff had let him spend even more money. It wasn’t exactly how James had planned it, but at least he’d be able to tell Geoff that it had all been worth it, security-wise.

He could probably test the wheels, too, see if the metal rings underneath really worked out. He wasn’t sure how long they’d hold for, though, and he could just imagine this four-ton car losing a wheel going seventy-five on a main road. He’d escaped one crash with his life today, he wasn’t sure if he could risk another.

His door was banged up good and wouldn’t budge and, from the looks of it, neither would either back door. With a sound of disgust, Gavin got out so James could turn the car ff and climb out through his door instead. While Gavin bitched to himself, James went around the Escalade to check out the damage.

It was shards of glass or plastic. He must have run something over and shattered it because both wheels on his side were totally flat, at least three gashes in the front and two big, dark pieces of some sort of material sticking proudly out of the last one.

While he was out, he might as well check the rest of the fucking...numerous disasters that had befallen his car.

The barricade had scraped nearly all of the paint off a line across the body of the Escalade, leaving gray and yellow in its wake, though he could admit that he might have caused that when he’d reversed into the truck earlier. The barricades had caved in both doors, though the extra thickness required to hold the ballistic glass had protected him from the damage. Both tail lights were crushed, and the trunk wouldn’t be opening fully _or_ closing fully anytime soon, but at least there was still a trunk instead of just a crushed back end.

The back door on Gavin’s side hadn’t fared much better than James’ side. It had actually caved into the back, definitely enough to have seriously injured someone had they been sitting there, and James didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if he hadn’t got Gavin out of the way.

Gavin’s actual door was...nearly untouched, just a slight dent where maybe it had brushed against the truck when they spun out but otherwise fine. James had heard rumors about Gavin Free’s luck but he’d never seen it for himself until this fucking day.

The front of his beautiful, expensive Escalade was...painful to look at. The front grill was scraped up - all black and off-color purple and white, one of his headlights broken to pieces and the wires hanging limply and the other stuck on a perpetual blink. His hood had bent up nearly enough that he could stick his hand under the highest point nearly without touching the hood itself, and when he pushed it up to check the engine, things didn’t look very pretty there either. He wasn’t sure that that was supposed to be crushed, that’s for sure.

God, hopefully Asher would be able to take a look at this and know what to do. James could pick the nice cars and spend the money to make them nicer, and he could care for it, but he couldn’t _fix_ it on his own. Especially not without any tools or any way of knowing if there even were any problems or if he was just imagining things.

Until then, he wasn’t sure if the thing was safe to even drive the mile to the cleaners. Once again, he was reminded that, had he been alone, he could have made much easier decisions. But with Gavin, it was a choice between putting him back in a car that could maybe explode or fall apart suddenly without any warning, leave him behind while they were possibly still being chased, or stick around until they could get rides to where they were going. One of those ideas was just...not good, and the other wasted time.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Gavin pointed at him, still looking a tiny bit green from his barfing experience at the crash site, “Like this is my fault. I warned you to go around Rancho. I warned you, but you wouldn’t listen even though I know this city like the back of my hand. You’ve not been here even a year and act like you _know things_ -”

“Have you ever missed a chance to say I told you so? Do you think you’d, like. Expand and float away from all the hot air you keep inside if you didn’t talk so much?”

“I’m gonna expand _you_ , you - prong!”

“That makes no goddamn sense, and I have no idea what that is, if it’s supposed to insult me.”

“Everything I say is supposed to insult you,” Gavin exploded with motion, throwing both arms up. It was honestly the most emotion James had ever seen him use in front of him aside from that episode earlier, and it made his face go red and angry, “Because I hate you! I hate you and I wish you would just - disappear! Go away! Leave us alone! Get kidnapped, go back to Colorado, die, whatever! Just stop - being here!”

“I’m not exactly your biggest fan, either!” James pulled his phone out to fucking download the Uber app. He’d never really had a use for it before, but he was going to see if he could order two at once. Finally getting Gavin out of his hair would be worth however much money the cost was to get him back to the penthouse. Hell, he’d call one of the Fakes if it hadn’t been an unspoken decision to not bother them with this unless it got serious. “But I’m not going anywhere. Get used to it, don’t get used to it, I could not give less of a fuck.”

Gavin groaned out loud, like he’d finally just lost his shit with James, “You are not the person that Aleks is supposed to end up with! Your relationship is a mistake! The things you’re feeling aren’t real, and they will fade, and then he is going to realize that he’s signed away half of everything he has and will ever have to _you_ , the con artist that stole him to another state so a man could collect and kill him! Save both of you the pain of a messy divorce and just leave now!”

James, grinding his teeth, glared at himself in the reflection of the window.

“No.”

“If you won’t do it for yourself, then do it for _him_. If you _have_ to insist on this, can’t you wait until _he’s_ ready? Why do you have to push for more when you have a house and a job and income and security!? If he really wants to marry you, he’ll ask himself when he’s _ready_. When he’s not in his twenties and just getting into the big leagues.”

“Because,” James turned to look at Gavin and said what he’d been trying to keep at the back of his mouth since Gavin had started to pushed him, “Aleks deserves to be told he’s wanted by someone who doesn’t just see him as a shiny accessory.”

Gavin blinked, caught off guard. There was a brief pause where it was kind of like he was taking the words in, examining them, parsing out the meaning and translate it into something he could understand better.

Finally, he opened his mouth, only to close it again. He took a few more seconds, eyebrows drawing in as he began to show his anger. “You have fundamentally misunderstood the relationship we have.”

“Maybe.” James shrugged, “All I know for sure is that I don’t give a shit if he’s loaded or not. We could live in my shoe box apartment, working night shifts to make ends meet and I’d _still_ want to marry his high maintenance, bossy, bratty ass. Would you even give him a second glance if he didn’t dress up and play the part of the diamond of Los Santos?”

They were still grappling on the ground, Gavin trying to choke the life out of James with his bare hands and James trying to not let him do that, when the Vagos found them again.

Gavin had kneed him in the gut and James was both trying to defend his throat from Gavin’s vicious nails - they were _so long_ , how hadn’t he noticed how _long_ they were - and convince his body not to upchuck what little he had in his stomach when Gavin was quite suddenly ripped off of him.

He set up, coughing and rubbing at his collarbone where Gavin had managed to scratch him, and glanced around to find out who had helped him - only to end up with a the barrel of a gun in his face.

“Damn, Wilson,” One of the jerseys from the tailor’s smirks at him, smug behind his Taurus. He was young, younger than James had assumed back at the shop, and inexperienced. He was holding the gun too tight and his body too loose, all James would have to do is duck and punch up and he’d break his grip on the gun easily and probably get a good hit in on him before running.

“We knew you and the fool’s gold were an item, but you and _Free_? I wasn’t expectin’ those kinda balls.”

The sound of Gavin cursing and flailing out of his line of sight was...both mildly comforting, because it meant he was alive, and annoying, because God forbid Gavin Free shut his mouth even during a kidnapping. He had most of the attention on him and, when James didn’t respond to the taunt, even his captor glanced away. It was exactly what James was waiting for.

He launched himself forward using one hand and grabbed the kid’s wrist with the other, first pushing it sideways so the gun wasn’t aimed at him anymore and then up toward the sky. With one leg, he kicked his heavy boot into the kid’s ribcage, hopefully cracking at least one, and then twisted the kid’s wrist and hand. With a loud cry, the gun went clattering to the ground and James snatched it and rolled until he’d disappeared around the back of the Escalade.

He was on his feet before the kid had even finished crying out, checking the chamber for bullets and then looking around for an escape route. Between two of the houses, over the chain-link fence, they might follow but if he fired a few times to scare them off they’d probably scatter. If he got most of them following him, he didn’t doubt that Gavin would be able to get himself away. They could meet up, or he’d -

“Come out with your hands up!” Another voice - definitely older, rougher, with a hint of an accent - called, sounding angry, “Or we’ll put a bullet through the fool’s foot.”

 _Bluffing_ , James immediately though. If they hurt Gavin, there would be absolute hell to pay and they weren’t in Rancho. James would put money on this not being a sanctioned abduction, they’d have to go get the okay from the bosses before they actually harmed a Fake -

“He’s already gone, you absolute wankstain of a mammal,” Gavin said, loud enough that he’d probably just alerted the whole neighborhood to his presence, “More importantly, who even are you!? I know the names and faces of every important person in this city and you are not one of them, so -”

There was a dull sound, skin against skin, and Gavin went quiet...for about two seconds.

“Was that supposed to hurt?” He taunted, even louder, “Oh, big bad gangster, I’m so scared! Please don’t hit me again, I promise I’ll be quiet!” He laughed, mocking, “Oh, fuck you. Perhaps try it again but with more gusto! It’ll take a lot more than a love tap like that to shut me up, that’s for sure -”

Gavin grunted, pained, and James really - he had to think. He had to think. Even if he ran, they probably wouldn’t come after him, not with the bigger fish already in their hands. He needed to get away, but he couldn’t leave Gavin behind.

Or, he could. Shit, Gavin had got himself into this. Gavin had got _James_ into this. All he’d done for the last two hours was insult him and his relationship with Aleks, call into question everything from his class to his intentions to his feelings, and make his life harder than it really needed to be. He should just fucking leave, get to safety and call Geoff. They could come rescue Gavin, there was a horde of Fakes congregating an hour from this spot right now and they’d all be here in half the time with an arsenal behind them to get their golden boy back. Aleks probably wouldn’t even blame him - it was the safest option for them both, calling in reinforcements.

“Last chance to come out, Wilson!” That voice called again, though he didn’t sound like he thought it was going to work, “Give yourself up or I’ll make sure the fool is made extra comfortable where he’s going!”

He needed to run.

_Maybe you’d betray your crew, but I won't betray mine._

He stopped, that particular memory freezing his feet in place. Aleks, that motherfucker. Why did he always show up in James’ thoughts at the _worst times_ , with his stupid - trust and shit.

This was the consequence of trying to _change_ , be a _better person_. Fucking fuck.

“I told you,” Gavin sneered, sounding winded, “He’s -”

“I’m coming out, for fucke’s sake!” James said with an irritated curse, putting both hands in the air, gun hanging off his thumb and middle finger. He walked back around the Escalade, glaring the whole while. Immediately there were two more guns trained on him, a sawed-off in the hands of the kid he’d strangled awhile ago, who looked quite worse for wear, and another Taurus with the kid Gavin had held up at the tailor’s.

They’d been a mile away. So fucking close.

Gavin was with Slacks, both arms twisted behind his back and a blank stare aimed right at James. Not even a damned thank you, James wasn’t gonna hear the end of this for the rest of his fucking life.

The jersey he’d taken the gun from stalked forward, looking furious, and James rolled his eyes and tossed him his prize. Fucking kids.

“On your knees,” The kid demanded, turning it round on him again. His wrist was shaking - James may have twisted it, oops - and his fingers were stiff on the trigger guard - James could easily have grabbed it again. Instead, with a deep sigh, he dropped to his knees.

“They really are idiots,” The one Gavin had held up said with a frown, looking a little guilty, and then the butt of the sawed-off made contact with James’ head.

Getting hit in the head, much like choking someone out, is not exactly like what they show in the movies.

James wasn’t knocked out by the blow, shit would have got a lot more serious for them both if he had been, but fuck if he wasn’t disoriented and in a sudden amount of startling pain. They bound his hands with cord behind his back, so tight that he was actually kind of worried about circulation, patted him down for his phone, smashed it under a boot and dragged him bodily toward their purple van. The truck was nowhere to be found, but James was too dizzy with the pulsing pain in his temple to try to think about that.

He heard Gavin putting up a giant fuss, screaming and squawking for the whole neighborhood to hear. Maybe making noise enough that anyone who recognized him would realize what was going on and make a call or two, not that James had much hope. The way his luck was going, he’d be lucky to get home before dawn, let alone before the party started or with his ring. Another fucking promise broken.

He heard the van doors being pried open, his little fender bender earlier had nearly made them inoperable without some heavy yanking, and then he was shoved into the back, barely managing to roll onto his back so he could get his blurry gaze on the guys who had pushed him in. Instead, he watched them all step out of the way so Slacks could come through with Gavin tossed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, legs kicking wildly and arms pinned under his body.

Gavin was tossed with little care right on top of him and he barely held back the yelp of pain as an elbow made connection with both his face and his collarbone. The collarbone hurt but it was very soundly eclipsed by Gavin’s arm smashing into both his fucked up nose and his pulsing head. That particular feeling made his vision white out for just a moment, just until he could recalibrate.

Gavin rolled off of him quickly, kneeing him in the stomach this time, and James was suddenly unsure if his biggest enemy was the fucker zip tied next to him or the kidnappers.

“You two, take care of their ride,” Slacks ordered, motioning to the jersey James had taken the Taurus from and the one he’d choked out earlier. Get rid of the injured ones so they couldn’t take advantage.

“But -” Jersey started, looking furious. His friend, on the other hand, looked relieved. James could see both eyes had turned a bloody red color - blood vessels, probably. Or he just had a thing for dying the whites of his eyes.

“No,” Slacks waves a hand, and then slammed the doors on he and Gavin. No one immediately jumped into the driver’s seat so they were probably, but James doubted they would be alone for any great length of time. Not a tight cell, then. Most probably, Slacks was an older low-ranking member of the gang that had collected a few young outliers to be his stooges.

He wiggled as best he could until he was able to sit up and lean against the wall of the van, resting his head back against the cool plastic of the interior in an attempt to sooth the pain wracking his entire skull. He felt warm running down the side of his face, probably a gash from the sawed-off. Aleks was gonna be so fucking pissed.

“What,” Gavin rasped, voice low, “The bloody fuck are you doing? What didn’t you go get help? You had an opening!”

“Listen, man,” James clenched his eyes closed, tried to keep his voice from shaking, “I’ll be real honest here, I’m in a lot of pain and I can’t handle this right now. I need like, just give me a minute. We’re not getting outta here any time soon.”

“We _would_ have been if you’d run!” Gavin, obviously not in a giving mood, ignored his plight, “Are you really so stupid? What in the _world_ -”

“Stop calling me stupid,” James tried to wipe some blood of his cheek and then cursed as he was forced to close his eye against the crimson leaking across his eyelid. His hands weren’t exactly of any use right now. He’d have to live with it. “I’m not fucking stupid. They were gonna fuck you up.”

“No, they weren’t, and we both know that,” Gavin shrugged him off, “Or, at least, I _thought_ we did until you proved yourself to be the _biggest_ idiot -”

“Stop calling me _stupid_!” James repeated, angrier, “You are such a goddamn dick! I stayed because I couldn’t leave you behind, what is so _hard to understand_!?”

“This should have been the easiest decision you have ever made in your pointless, tiny life,” Gavin wiggled around angrily, kicked at his ankles, which were just about the only things on James’ body that didn’t hurt yet, “You hate me, I hate you, you didn’t have to _save me_ -”

“Of course I had to save you!” James, realizing that he would be getting no respite, started to test the cording around his wrists. Tight, too tight, but he might be able to loosen them if given enough time and blood.

“No, you most certainly did not -”

“I promised Aleks I’d get you to his party,” James grunted, taking a deep breath and then starting to twist one hand around as best he could. It pulled and burnt, nearly unbearably against the burns from the airbag, “Hate you or not,” he felt something give a little. It didn’t have that waxy feel of new cord, maybe it had been in this van for awhile. Maybe it was weak in some places. “I’m not just gonna leave you when things get sticky. You mean too much to him for me to do that.”

Gavin...didn’t have anything to say to that apparently, because he finally shut up. All day, James had been trying to learn the special trick to getting him to do that. It turned out that trick was getting beaten up and taken by some gang members.

Not James’ first choice, but at least something good had come of it.

Seconds later, Slacks, the kid, and the other jersey with the sawed-off piled into the front seat of the van, leaving the two of them to roll around in the free space of the back, apparently.

“Junior, here,” Slacks said, sounding not amused at all, “Is gonna be watching you two. Try anything funny and you ain’t gonna like what happens.”

“Oh, yes, because until this moment, we’ve enjoyed everything that’s happened,” Gavin sneered at him, “You and your knock-off Armani can get bent, you monkey fart.”

In response, Slacks started the van up and slammed on the gas for a split second. It was enough to rock the van forward and then jerk it back and James, with exactly zero leverage to rely on, went fucking rolling across the back of the van again and right into Gavin. Gavin’s arms had at least been tied in front of him but James couldn’t do anything to stop himself except bite back a shout as he landed rough on his shoulder and greeted the paneling at the back of the van with his head.

He’d had plans, fifteen minutes ago, of making fun of Gavin for barfing when all of this was said and done. Those plans soundly went out the door when he realized that his head was spinning hard enough that he was probably going to have to join the club soon. He must have - made some sort of noise because he felt Gavin stiffen up where their legs were touching. Great, this was...this was so impressive. The first time Gavin had actually seen him doing the job he was hired to do for Aleks and James was curled up on his side and trying not to throw up from a headache like a bitch.

Still, he had to go limp, rest his head on the floor of the van and take a few deep, shaking breathes to control himself and settle his rolling gut.

The van started it’s motion again when Gavin didn’t say anything else, and it jerked but James wasn’t hurled around, at least. He did have to pick his head up, though, or risk the shaking van braining him again.

He tried to sit and, in possibly the most humiliating moment of his life, couldn’t until Gavin pushed him off his side and back up against the wall.

James kept his eyes closed until things had stopped spinning so bad. When he blinked his one good one open, it was to the dim of the windowless back area and a furious looking Gavin Free.

He really couldn’t handle the fighting right now, so he just kept his mouth shut and started moving his hand again. The pain of his wrist was nowhere near the pain of his head - he was probably concussed, which was…not ideal on the night he’d hoped to get engaged - and it was much easier to ignore. He could feel the bruises setting in, but he could also feel the ends of the where the cord was tied with his fingers if he stretched his fingers. If he could just loosen one wrist up, he could probably pick the knot open.

“You should have run,” Gavin said quietly, if not as aggressively as before.

“I couldn’t.” James said, because there was nothing else to say. He _knew_ he should have run. He would have, if he hadn’t fallen in love with Gavin’s fucking spiritual guardian, or whatever Aleks apparently was, to have appeared in his thoughts as often as he did when Gavin was involved.

“Idiot,” Gavin sniped but even as James’ mouth thinned, Gavin shifted until he could knee-walk his way to James’ side. He reached for one of his pockets and James, just briefly, hoped it was for a cell phone. It was a stupid hope, but he had it anyway. Call him an idealist.

Instead, Gavin pulled out a handkerchief.

“Is this Pride and Prejudice?” He asked before he thought better of it, and then flinched back almost hard enough to tip over again when Gavin made a move for his head.

“Relax,” Gavin pulled him back up, looking even more annoyed even if his voice didn’t give any of his emotions away, “I’m just gonna clean off your face. Head wounds bleed too much to leave you weepin’ your gross juices all over the place.”

“Gee, sorry for the gross juices. I didn’t mean for them to split my head open,”

“Don’t be dramatic, you baby,” Gavin reached up again, much slower this time, and James still flinched, but managed not to fall over trying to escape again. Instead, he let Gavin press the cloth to his forehead. It stung like a bitch, but it also kind of felt nice to have something against his head, like Gavin was holding his skull together so it didn’t split any farther.

Gavin pressed down far more gently than James would have expected, mopped up the blood with the edge and one hand while he kept the other flat to the gash, dabbed until James could carefully blink open his eye again. James breathed out in relief and swallowed back his thanks. He didn’t think Gavin would appreciate them, anyway.

“There,” Gavin hesitated and then dropped down next to him so he could keep the cloth to his head, “Just...rest. There’s no escaping for now.”

“Rest,” James scoffed, trying to imagine ever resting again with the nails drilling into his skull, “Okay.”

“Shut up,” Gavin glanced at the front seat, where James was sure there were eyes glued to them, “You’re going to pass out if you don’t chill. You’ve taken a lot of hits to the ol’ noggin’.”

“I guess,” James said, even though they both knew he was one more good knock away from a serious injury, if he wasn’t already there. He was almost more worried about what Aleks was going to do to him when he got his freshly manicured hands on him, honestly. Both for getting taken on his birthday, but also for letting Gavin get taken.

A mile away. Fuck his life.

He did close his eyes, the thought just too much at the moment.

They rode for a long time, maybe an hour, though James had no idea what direction. He had to hope Gavin was keeping an eye on the front seat and had figured something out navigation-wise.

The lack of visual stimulus made things more gentle on his brain so he stayed like that for most of the hour before he decided it was safe to introduce his vision again. Of course, it was to Gavin glaring at him.

This glare, at least, was more thoughtful than really _angry_.

“What?” He decided to risk, which was a pretty major decision considering Gavin was physically touching the most painful part of James’ body at the moment. His arms must have been tired, but he’d barely shifted at all, let alone complained. James’ hands were a little numb, but he’d managed to loosen one cord and work his wrist up a few centimeters so he kept at it.

“You think I see Aleks like an accessory.”

James sucked in a deep, fortifying lungful. Apprehension filled him to his bones.

“Is now really the time?”

“Not like either of us are goin’ anywhere, Wilson.”

“Point.”

“ _To_ the point,” Gavin switched back to the matter at hand, despite James’ obvious discomfort, “You think I see Aleks like an _accessory_?”

“Look, I was...angry,” James started to say, and then stopped. No. No, if Gavin was gonna start it, then maybe it was time to work some shit out before they fucking died. “But I guess I meant what I said. I know you love him, but it’s kind of fucked up that you treat him like he’s actually a precious jewel instead of a dude.”

Gavin wrinkled up his entire face, like he was about to spit some truly acidic words, and James braced for it. And then Gavin closed his eyes and sighed until he was relaxed again.

“I _suppose_ I can...see where you may get that impression.”

“He told me about the earring,” James shifted, slipped his hand up just a tiny bit more. He’d finally cracked his wrist and the blood was acting like a good lube, for the moment. “And, you know, the whole...backstory or whatever. About you taking him in and making him all...the way he is.”

“And what way is that?” Gavin asked sharply, defensive, and James huffed out an annoyed glare of his own. Tensing his eyes like that immediately sent his head pounding though, and he had to drop his eyes closed again.

“Don’t be a dick, Free. You know what way I’m talking about. With the makeup bag and the mirror for an hour if we are going to the grocery store, and the clothes that go out of season faster than the actual seasons, and the jewels that cost more than the GDP of most small countries.”

“You mean you blame me for making him like me.”

“I don’t _blame_ you,” James tried to think of how to put it, but his head hurt and he _couldn’t_ think, “I get it, man. You did the best you could with what you had to work with. I’m not, like. Questioning your parenting skills or, uh, what the fuck ever kind of position you took up. Obviously life in the upper crust of the Fakes meant some deviance from normalcy.”

“But?”

“But Aleks is a normal dude. He’s a normal fucking dude who acted like I’d given him some sort of gift because I showed him a place with a jukebox and he likes chocolate milk that you make with Hershey’s syrup more than the kind you buy at the store and snores a lot. He’s not better than me, and neither are you - no matter how much gold you weld onto yourself.”

“I beg to differ,” Gavin grumbled but subsided when James just sneered at him.

“Aleks...is not a normal man, Nova. He’s a Fake. That means that there is a certain level of...expectation that he carries with him, same as the rest of us. It’s nothing to do with your worth as a person, and everything to do with the fact that you just...don’t fit those expectations. You won’t last.”

“Who the fuck gives a shit about expectations?” James opened his eyes, glare firmly in place despite the pain, “I don’t _care_ about any of that, and if you’d bothered to ask him instead of assuming that he was gonna be happy being your perfect little diamond for the rest of his life, you’d see that he doesn’t care, either.”

Gavin held his breath, like James was frustrating him but he was trying to keep it together. It was the most...revealing thing James had ever actually seen from him. Gavin didn’t just...show himself holding back, not ever. James had been yelled at by him plenty today, but he wouldn’t have described any of it as _losing his cool_ like this.

“You took him from me and you will _never_ ,” Gavin replied softly, his hand against James’ forehead tensing. James readied himself for the pain, though it never came. “Not ever be able to understand the depth of fear and helplessness I felt when you took him from me. That boy is everything to me. My diamond, my heart.”

James...had nothing to say to that, yet. When he’d heard Gavin call Aleks his diamond, he’d always felt a mild fission of irritation at the possessiveness, the dehumanization.

He’d never really thought that, in the same way Aleks had talked about himself like he _was_ a diamond, Gavin might...describe himself in the same way. The comparison didn’t work for Aleks, he didn’t _believe_ it, as hard as he tried, but it was entirely possible that Gavin actually did. What a fucking fucked up family. He was trying to marry into this.

“When he was young,” Gavin glanced away again, checking on their captures. None of them acted like they could hear anything, a light guitar playing from the radio and both windows down to keep the temperature down. “I initially did try to make him like me, believe it or not. Bendable, adaptable. But Aleksandr is no easily understood material.”

“He’s not a _material_ , Christ,” James twisted his wrist angrily and felt his thumb slip through a gap in the cords, “And neither are you.”

“Hush, Wilson, I’m giving you a history lesson,” Gavin frowned at him, “You have no mind for _metaphors_ , do you?”

“No.” James frowned right back, “Because you both take them too fucking far.”

“Well, it’s how we _learned_!” Gavin snapped, and then quieted down and checked the seat again, “It’s how I was taught, and it’s how he was taught. If you want this, then you had better learn to live with that. Now _listen_.”

James, holding back grumbles, stayed quiet.

“Aleks was not like me, as much as I tried to make him.” Gavin picked up his story, carefully pulled the cloth from James’ head to check the gash before he pressed it back down. His arms had finally begun to shake, but he didn’t seem to mind so James didn’t point it out. Maybe he did intense arm workouts and was just getting his minutes in.

“Joel was my mentor, and he molded me after him, but he didn’t...teach me different methods to the madness. I only knew my own when Aleks found me. It was difficult, and only grew more so, because he just would not _listen_ or learn. He was no golden boy.”

“So you came up with the diamond.”

“So _we_ came up with the diamond,” Gavin tsked, “A method of teaching my tricks of the trade to someone who didn’t learn how I did. Aleks has no head for the life of my crew and I. He isn’t meant to bend to the world, he’s meant for the world to bend to him. Nothing can scratch him. He was coal when he came to me and, together and through a _lot_ of fire and pressure, he sculpted his own identity.”

“Which just so happens to be based heavily on the only thing that you don’t throw away.” James wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose. Jesus Christ.

“He needed a way to convince himself that he was with us for good,” Gavin looked at his hands steadily, not sounding even an ounce guilty, “I stuck to the golden decadence of Joel’s lifestyle, and he...found what was easiest for a neglected child to cling to to signify worth. A priceless jewel, more beautiful than any others. He fits it.”

“He’s not a jewel,” James slipped his hand looser. The blood was starting to dry and stick, tacky on his skin.

“Perhaps to you.” Gavin shrugged, “But it’s who he is, when he’s not home, when he’s in public. Maybe you do love Aleksandr Free, the boy behind the door. But if you want to marry him and join this world, you have to love the diamond boy, too. It’s _part_ of him, James. It’s just as much who he is as the Aleks you‘re familiar with.”

“But -”

“Loving a Fake is a sacrifice,” Gavin lowered his voice, said the words with an intensity that made James go cold. “It is not easy. It is not pleasant. It is not gentle. Loving him will not make your life a happy one. It will be dangerous, and petty. You will die young, and you will probably die in pain. You will be a target, and people across the city will talk about you behind your back and sabotage you at every turn. One day, you will wake up and realize that all of your friends are gone and you’ve nothing left but us. Do you understand?”

“Well,” James said after a long, pregnant pause, “I see where Aleks gets his dramatics.”

Gavin laughed, soft, and just a little pained. “I s’pose.”

James...set back to think. Make himself, through the pain in his head and the blood on his wrists and the knowledge that he was, in no way, going to make it to the party on time.

Gavin had a point. Not one that he hadn’t thought about, at least a little, before, but still. James didn’t go to many official events with Aleks; he wasn’t exactly known for his diplomacy and after he’d told that one lady to go fuck herself in the middle of dinner, Aleks had kind of given in to the fact that James wouldn’t be co-ruling his eventual domination of the Los Santos financial district. He didn’t often see Aleks in action, when he draped himself in the sort of the personality that James would have expected from Gavin more than from the guy he had to carry out of the pool because he fell asleep on the raft and sunburnt his entire front half, but he knew it was there.

He also knew that Aleks didn’t like to be called any of those names, that he just wanted to be known as who he was. That he could love that smug bastard he’d first met just as much as he loved the guy he’d made breakfast for that morning, as long as he knew that the mask was one he knew how to take off.

And he wasn’t exactly an uncomplicated cat, either. He had his own shit that Aleks was navigating. It balanced out.

“Fuck it. I never expected to make it past thirty,” He decided, lips twitching up in a quick, if pained, smile, “Gimme two years with him, and any time after that will be more than I asked for.”

“Two years, huh?” Gavin smoothed his thumb over the cloth again, finally shifting so he could rest his elbow on James’ shoulder. It brought him closer but James wasn’t gonna call attention to it.

“I’ll shoot for a couple decades more than that, but…” James slipped his hand farther up, felt the knot of cord finally make contact with his barely freed fingers. Immediately, he started to pick at it.

“Well, if we’re going to go ahead and lay it all out,” Gavin hummed, upbeat, “Let’s talk about my biggest issue with you, personally.”

“Oh, let’s.”

“You,” Gavin said, with the confidence of who he was, “Are a liar and a traitor, Nova.”

It was spoken like a fact, because it was. James was...both of those things. Had been those things since he was a kid. It still stung to hear, but only because he’d hoped that the last seven months had proven he’d been dedicated to changing.

“That’s fair.”

“It’s _more_ than fair,” Gavin agreed, “Pot and kettle here, but it’s different because you lied and betrayed _my diamond_ , which is completely unacceptable. Do you understand the position you are in? By all rights, you should be dead right now.”

“If we’re being honest, I suspect that you put a hit on me,”

“Oh, that’s months old,” Gavin scoffed, “I had that out before I’d even brought you back!”

“That’s...comforting.”

“If JD had done his job, we wouldn’t be here right now,” Gavin sighed, disappointed, “But, regrettably, here you are. A liar, a traitor, and wanting to marry Aleks. You can understand why that’s unacceptable.”

“It’s cheap to say that’s not who I want to be,” James cleared his throat, “It’s not who I want to be with him. Or, you know. With the Fakes.”

“But it was acceptable to be who you were with _you_ crew? The hub?”

James winced. “Low blow, Alfred.”

“I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em,”

“If it fucking...makes you happy, fine. Yes. I was a liar, but I didn’t _betray_ my crew. I was there until the goddamn end, going down with that ship. I only left because I had people relying on me. That money was mostly mine, anyway. It’s not like _Jordan_ was gonna do anything with it and we needed start-up capital.”

“A nice excuse, I’d say, if you have to justify robbing your own crew blind. And Italy?”

“Why does everyone always want to know about _fucking_ Italy?”

“One of your teammates almost died, Wilson. You shot him.”

“He wasn’t my teammate at the time.”

“That’s not what our sources say.”

“Well, that’s what _I_ say, and I’m a _primary_ fucking source,” James stopped fiddling with the knot, fingers too tense to even bother. He needed to relax.

“Tell me why you shot Asher.”

James clenched his teeth. Gavin wouldn’t leave it alone until he answered, he knew that, but fuck if it wasn’t annoying.

“When I left the hub, I took two people with me. One, Aron, wanted out so I helped him out. The other, Joe, is my best friend, and he decided to stick with me. I found some work as a gun for hire and brought Joe in when it started to get lucrative. Asher came later; I met him on a job and he clicked with us so I brought him into my team. Jakob came in on the Italy job.”

“And the team’s all together. Except for your illustrious lady killer.”

“It was a simple job. We just had to guard building - it was a _shack_ , more than anything, but it was inside the walls of a big mansion in Rome. There was another crew around that we were ordered to shoot on sight, a bunch of hired guns. I dunno how they met, probably when Asher went out to pick up lunch. Neither of ‘em would ever say.”

“Oh, young love,” Gavin batted his eyelashes, and it was almost funny, with his eyeliner just slightly smeared and the gold glitter always present on his bronze skin, “Tis sweet and sour. Maybe literally if you were picking up Chinese.”

“You’re so funny. Yeah, he fell hard, except he fell for the wrong girl. Anna worked for the other crew. Asher...defected, kind of. He wasn’t on my team when I shot him.”

“He was your crew, Wilson,”

“He _left_ us,” James snapped, “We weren’t a _crew_ , we were a team. And he betrayed the team. So yeah, when he showed up with her after making it pretty clear that a fling a couple days in the making was the love of his life and that he was going to help her, I shot him.”

“Except he’d come for your help.”

“Who, exactly, was your source, Free?”

“I don’t like to name names. It’s only that your boy is particularly weak to cocktails.”

“Asher never did know what to keep his mouth shut.”

“That’s what got him shot, isn’t it? He hurt your feelings.”

“He threatened the goal,” James said with as much conviction as he could because Gavin was wrong. This, at least, James could say with total honestly, he was wrong about. “And the goal was what I was concerned about. Jakob had been stabbed by her crew, I wasn’t taking anymore chances. The risk was too high. I weighed my options.”

“Let’s say I believe you. He came to you for help and you shot him because the risk was too high.”

“Yeah,” James nodded, “Yes. I saw someone from the other team, I followed orders. That was my job.”

“You shot to kill.”

“He exaggerated if he said that.” James snorted, “If I’d shot to kill, he’d be dead. I shot him in the arm. A couple months of recovery and physical therapy and he was fine.”

“But you would have killed him.”

“To protect the team I still had?” James didn’t hesitate, “Yes. But Anna called a truce. She said that she’d left her crew, too, and they were on the run.”

“And you believed her.”

“Call me a romantic. There’s something about a crying face covered in the blood of a lover that pulls at my heartstrings.”

“I’d call you a fool, first,” Gavin snorted and James just sneered at him again.

“Call me what you want, I don’t care. I took him to the hospital after we tied her up and left him there. She stayed locked up with us until the job was over and I took her back to the States with us when we left. Asher apologized, Anna joined up, and we’ve been together ever since. But that’s the fucking story. I didn’t betray anyone. ”

“Debatable.”

“Jakob was seventeen years old and recovering from a stab wound and Joe’s good but he’s not _that_ good. I did what I had to do. I’m a lot of things, motherfucker, but Italy was _not_ my fault. No one came to me before they decided to declare their everlasting fuckin’ love and threaten my people.”

“Your track record is not good,” Gavin stated, like he needed to remind James that he wasn’t exactly bringing a good reputation to the table, “A bankrupt and abandoned crew, a shot teammate who betrayed you and is yet still breathing and working for you, a kidnapping and betrayal as a meet cute…”

“You make it sound so unromantic.” James said stiffly, “We like to refer to it as the ring incident.”

“How am I supposed to let someone like you take him from me again?” Gavin asked, face serious and his voice gentle, like he was breaking some bad news.

“I…” James started, not quite sure how to approach that.

And then it turned out that he didn’t have to, because they’d reached their destination.

“Junior,” Slacks turned the radio off, “Watch ‘em while we call Pap.”

“One of the big guys,” Gavin said, so quiet James almost hadn’t heard it, “Someone who actually matters.”

“If either one acts up,” Jersey handed Junior his sawed-off, “Shoot ‘em.”

“Um,” Junior looked at the sawed-off and then at them, twisted in his seat. He was probably in his late teens, maybe eighteen at a stretch. He was also probably not going to survive this if he put up a fight. “Yeah, okay. I got it.”

“I know,” Jersey said, fond, and ruffled Junior’s hair before following Slacks out of the van. Both doors slammed closed, leaving the three of them alone.

Junior watched them, gun held sideways so it was facing out one of the windows.

James, if asked later, could pinpoint the exact moment that Gavin took control of the scene. It was exactly thirty seconds after James heard a screen door slam.

“Hey,” Gavin said, his voice louder but so gentle and kind that it took James aback, “It’s gonna be okay. They’ll call their guy, money’s exchanged, and we’re home!”

James...nodded, because what else was he supposed to do. When he felt Gavin’s pinky barely twitch against the side of his face, he went with it and allowed his body to slump over.

“James,” Gavin leaned forward to catch him, panicked, “Oh, oh shit,”

“What!?” Junior set up, wide-eyed, face pale, “Is he -”

“It’s - it’s the head wound,” Gavin held James’ face in his hands, palms warm and comforting on his cheeks, and James stayed limp, fluttering his eyes nearly closed, “He’s been weak the whole ride, that gun hit him so hard, I don’t -”

“I’ll go get Tony -” Junior started to get out of the van and then stopped and turned to glare at Gavin fiercely, “This is a trick.”

“He is dying,” Gavin said, with such deadly conviction that James almost believed it himself, “And he is going to bleed out while you sit there and watch unless you help us. Our hands are bound - if you don’t trust me than just come look yourself! Please!”

Junior wavered, but between James’ labored breathing - which, really, wasn’t all that faked - and Gavin’s begging, “ _Please_ , help him,” he made the decision.

He got out of the van, gravel crunching under his feet, and Gavin immediately let go of James’ face and twisted around to get to his foot. He yanked his shoe off and, with a face of stone, ripped a thin razor blade more similar to Sweeney Todd than anything James had ever seen in real life from a pocket on the inside of the shoe. He flipped it open, cut the zip tie like it was a second thought. The back door of the van yanked opened to reveal Junior standing with the sawed-off pointed at the ground and Gavin lunged.

James watched as, with no hesitation, Gavin grabbed Junior’s shoulder and sliced his throat open.

Blood...immediately began to poor. Junior watched them both, wide eyed, as he reached up with a hand to touch his throat.

“Sorry, love,” Gavin said, actually sounding apologetic, “It’s only, I let you go earlier. I don’t do second chances. Maybe if you cover it up and get to a hospital, you’ll just be mute instead of dead!”

He guided Junior to his knees on the ground and slipped the sawed-off out of his limp hand, placed it in the van and then guided Junior’s now-free hand to help with his throat.

“That’s fucked up,” James said, because it was.

“I s’pose,” Gavin said, like he didn’t care, and then shoved at James’ shoulder until he turned enough for Gavin to slice through the cords.

The blood rushing back into his hands - hurt. It hurt a fucking lot. His shoulders, his elbows, the muscles of his arms, his _back_ \- God, his entire body. Jesus.

“Sorry, kid,” He said, also apologetic, and Junior just blinked at him, eyes still wide and scared, and James really did feel bad. He wasn’t a murderer, not as a rule, and this was a fuckin’ kid.

But he was a kid in Vagos, who had tried who murder him. Who would have hurt Gavin or Aleks or any of his friends, really. No mercy in this game.

 _You’ll die young and you’ll probably die in pain_ , Gavin had said.

James closed the door on Junior and then crawled to the seat, which Gavin had already climbed over.

“Sod _off_ ,” Gavin was mumbling to himself, bent over sideways and fiddling under the wheel, “These older models, they’re _useless_ -”

“Move,” James said and then shoved him out of the way without waiting. Mostly blind, he reached below and found the wires he was looking for. He stripped them with Gavin’s offered blade, ignoring the still wet blood, and, in about the same amount of time it took Gavin to kill someone, James had the van running.

“I can’t drive,” he admitted, because he was kind of seeing almost double.

“Then it’s your turn to move,” Gavin pushed him over and situated himself in front of the wheel.

“ _Junior!_ ”

And that was Jersey, and their cue to leave.

“And look,” Gavin said, looking at the clock, “We’ll only be two hours late.”

He did a U-turn in the yard of the little cabin they’d been parked in front of and slammed on the gas as soon as they were aimed at a road. A gun went off behind them, shattered the back window, and then they were gone.

James sunk down into his seat, tilted his head back, and covered his face with his hands. His fingers were tingling like they were on fire, but it still felt good to be able to hold his own head, like it would help him fight off the dull throbbing still happening all over.

“What’s wrong, Nova?” Gavin said, sounding pleased, “We’re on our way home!”

“We’re going to be late to Aleks’ birthday party,” James offered up one finger blindly, “We’re covered in blood and shit and have no outfits to change into or even a place to clean up unless we want to be even more late,” he held up a second finger, and then a third as he finished, “And I still don’t have my ring.”

“Oh, yes, well.” Gavin slowed down as the sound of more cars, a heavier traffic, made itself known. “Better luck next time.”

“God, I hate you,” James said, and covered his face with both hands again.

-

James had seen the ring on accident. He didn’t know why he’d walked into that Tiffany’s, only that he’d been coming back from lunch with Anna and Asher and Asher had been reminiscing about their hitching in Vegas a couple months after Italy so it had...been on the brain.

He’d walked in and looked around for a few minutes, ready to leave almost before he’d even come in, except out of the corner of his eye he’d seen something. A flash of light or something, whatever it was had drawn his attention and he’d walked over to the display, seen a ring and imagined it on Aleks’ finger easier than breathing.

“Hey,” He’d asked a sales associate on the floor, a smiling woman with red lipstick that still stuck out in James’ memory, “Can I customize this?”

She’d smiled even wider at him and stood next to him to admire the ring in its box through the glass, “Of course, sir. If you’d like to fill out a form with one of our associates?”

And he’d followed her to talk to a dude and fill out a form with instructions so specific that both of them had been a little frustrated with all the questions. And then, a lot of time and money later, he’d had his ring.

And then he’d lost it. He’d misplaced it a few times, put it in this pocket instead of that, left it under his pillow when he’d meant to put it in his shoes, all in an effort to keep Aleks from stumbling onto it. But it was well and truly lost now; the cleaners were definitely closed, and even if he’d been able to get the names of the delivery guys, they’d have pawned it or stashed it by now. He’d be going home empty handed, fucked up, and with no excuses when Aleks rightfully demanded an explanation.

James operated on a pretty strict _no more lying_ policy, from which the ring had been a very distinct exception. He’d always planned to tell Aleks about it, that was the point of getting it. But he wouldn’t lie about it if Aleks asked, especially after all the trouble it had caused.

So he’d lost the ring, ruined his proposal, and Gavin _still_ hated him for something that he couldn’t change, no matter how hard he tried. All in all, the day was a failure.

“It was a nice ring.” he felt like saying when they’d reached the city, maybe forty-five minutes away.

“I’m sure it was,” Gavin said, more brightly than the loss really warranted.

“It was gold,” James said, picturing it in his mind, “White gold, so he could wear it all the time with, you know, his colors and stuff.”

“Thoughtful of you.”

“I wanted him to love it.” James said, because he had, “And it had diamonds, of course it did, but there was like. A pattern. Two little ones that were nice enough and then the middle one was kind of the main event. It was pink. You know, like a homage to how we met. “

“That’s nice.”

“And then there were like…criss-crossing lines. It was all symbolic and shit, because Aleks doesn’t say it a lot but he’s fucking smart. He likes that sort of shit, all that symbolism and looking at things and having them mean more than they look. I wanted him to look at that ring and feel how much effort I put into it for him.”

“You bought it at Tiffany’s, James.”

“That’s not the point, _Gavin_.” James snapped, and then sighed and went limp, “Why am I trying to explain this to you. Of course you wouldn’t understand.”

“Hey!” Gavin shot him a look, “I do so. You spent a lot of time on the dumb ring and it’s gone now and you’re sad about it. Get another ring, if you’re so serious about this.”

“I’ll have to,” James let go of the irritation, “It’ll be a while. You might actually get your year. I sunk the last of my savings into this one, so it’ll take me awhile to afford it again.”

“Aleksandr is richer than most politicians. He has more rings than he has days to wear them. I’m sure he can wait on the ring, or just commission it himself.”

“I’m not proposing with a ring he bought himself, what is wrong with you?” James narrowed his eyes at him, “Aleks deserves a fucking ring that I got for him, at least. Especially after this fiasco.”

They were both too tired to fight, probably, because neither of them said anything after that.

James, though, with his head in his hands, spoke up again a few minutes later.

“I don’t want to take him from you.”

Gavin sighed, deep and heavy.

“Wilson,”

“I don’t,” James suddenly...just needed Gavin to understand. “I don’t want to take him away from his family. I don’t want his money, or his influence, whatever. I’ll sign whatever paperwork you want me to. I just want to be with him and I want it to be as long as forever is for us.”

Gavin closed his hands tighter around the wheel; or, at least, James thought he had, judging by the squeal of the leather wheel cover.

“You’re serious about this, huh?”

“Yeah.” James nodded and swallowed because his voice cracked, “I am.”

“It’s going to be the biggest regret of your life.”

“I doubt that,”

“It will be.” Gavin insisted, “Geoff is going to rope you into dangerous jobs because of your talent and you’ve maxed out your good will with Jeremy and Ray.”

“You’re grasping at straws here. I’m not scared of your warnings, dude, just give up. I promise I’m more pigheaded than you are on this.”

“You’re not much headed at all, right now, Nova.”

“Why do you call me that?” James asked before he could stop himself, figuring that he should probably take advantage of what was most likely the only time the two of them would ever have a civil conversation again.

“Call you...by your alias?”

“It hasn’t been my name in years. I wasn’t even using it by the time we left the hub.”

“It’s your name.” Gavin shot him an odd look, like he was genuinely confused.

“It was a codename so the police wouldn’t track me down. It was only my name as far as it could protect me. My name is James.”

“You _see_!” Gavin slapped the wheel with both hands, suddenly irritated, “That right there! That attitude of yours. You _are_ Nova, as much as you are James. It’s _who you are_. There are not two people here, you are one goddamn man.”

James didn’t respond immediately. It sounded like a real enough answer that he wanted to think about it as best he could through his headache.

 _Was_ he still Nova? He hadn’t used that alias in...shit, at least three or four years. Obviously their aliases were a lot more important to the Fakes. They didn’t wear them like masks, they wore them like shields, like armor, or even like weaponry in the case of Ryan and Michael. It probably was kind of fucked up to Gavin that James would drop who he’d built himself up as so easily. Maybe it seemed like he was trying to hide who he’d been in the past, or like he’d refused a part of himself by rejecting the name. The job turns off for them, but it’s always present.

It clicked.

“The things I did when I was using that name,” he said, trying to word it right, “I didn’t do them as Nova. I did them as James. Once, Aleks told me that you guys - turn off. You’re different at home than you are at work. I’m not like that. Nova and James don’t have the same connection as the Golden Boy and Gavin. Nova was an _alias_ , not a persona. It doesn’t turn off for me. It’s like if I introduced myself as Greg to a few people in a town I’m never going back to.”

“That’s stupid.” Gavin sniffed, “All that work into a lovely name and you treat it like that. It protected you, you know. You should be more grateful.”

“...yeah, I guess so.” James admitted, now that he thought about it. Nova had protected him for a long time, there. He’d stopped using it around the same time that the hub had started to drag him down because they hadn’t been doing anything that required aliases anymore.

“Are you admitting that I’m right?”

“I’ll say that you have a point, you smug prick,” James allowed, “But I’m taking it with a grain of salt. You put way too much stock in names. It’s fuckin’ fine to prefer being the person behind the name.”

“Your talking about Aleks.”

“Of course I’m talking about Aleks,” James huffed, “Can’t you tell he fucking hates it? He doesn’t _like_ people calling him that shit. He wants to be known for his own effort, not as an offshoot as you or Geoff.”

“He is!” Gavin said, affronted, “Who said otherwise? Gimme a name here.”

“See!” It was James turn to say with accusation, “That right there! You treat him like a fucking kid and everyone knows it.”

“I do not,” Gavin denied, but James was warming to this.

“You try to fight every battle he’s ever had before he even gets the chance to. He wanted to get his own place, so you moved him three blocks away from your side, nowhere near any of his peers and visit nearly every day. He wants to get into the business, so you give him yours instead of letting him at least try to do it himself. He tries to be with someone you don’t like, so you broke into my car and harassed me with insults and threats for going on five hours.”

“That is just not true.” Gavin said, but his voice wavered. Neither of them believed him.

“I get it, man. He’s your brother...son, mash-up. Whatever’s going on there, that’s what he is. You wanna protect him, it’s a dangerous life. But you have to let him go a little. You’re going to smother him.”

“Oh, what would you know?” Gavin huffed at him, and James let it rest. He was willing to leave the silence for the rest of the trip, give his aching head some rest, but Gavin was the one who decided to continue the conversation.

“You know, today is a special day for Aleks and I.”

“His birthday?”

“He picked the date himself. You know he didn’t have any records before Geoff and I adopted him, he technically had no birthday. So we picked one. He picked the day we met.”

James nodded, not sure what to say once again. Maybe that had explained why Aleks had seemed so upset that morning, when it had seemed like he and Gavin wouldn’t have any plans.

“Twelve years ago, today.” Gavin stared straight ahead at the road. The sun had set around seven, and it was going on closer to eight. With any luck, they’d be home by eight-thirty.

“He didn’t mention that.”

“He doesn’t like talkin’ about it much, does he?” Gavin shrugged, “People always say you never love anyone like you love your kids. He’s not _that_ much younger than me, not really, but...I raised him, taught him, protected him. He’s mine as much as he’d be if he were mine biologically. Until this year, I’ve never had to share him with anyone but my crew.”

“Sorry?”

“Shut up.” Gavin shook his head, like James was trying his patience again. “He’s changed, these last few months. He holds himself differently.” He paused again, but James felt like he had more to say so he gave him the time to put it into words. “Maybe I do protect him more than I should. But, until very recently, he’s needed me to.”

James opened his mouth, closed it again. He couldn’t speak for the time before he’d known Aleks, he had no idea if what Gavin was saying was true or not.

“But, I suppose...he doesn’t need me anymore.” Gavin finally said, “He’s really grown up.”

“Are you stupid?” James blinks at him, “Of course he needs you. He loves you more than anyone, Jesus Christ. I’m just saying to let him fight his own battles, not that you can’t ever see him again. You’re such drama queens, both of you.”

“We all outgrow our mentors at some point,” Gavin swallowed, voice thick, “It’s understandable. He wants to strike out on his own, start a life outside of his crew. It’s to be expected, he’s a young man.”

“You don’t outgrow family,” James said quietly. He thought about his own mom, how much he missed her, even so long after he’d buried her. He couldn’t imagine that grief for Aleks.

That was finally the end of their conversation. No more words were spoken, not until the building came into view and James was hit with such a lurch of homesickness that it almost overwhelmed him. There were a _lot_ of lights happening at the top, the softest hint of music. Their downstairs neighbors probably hated them.

Gavin didn’t take the van to the lot. Instead, he parked it on the side of the road directly in front of the building. Illegal, but Gavin doubted it much mattered to Gavin.

He turned the engine off, but left one hand on the wheel and the other on the key, face thoughtful. James watched him out of the corner of his eye, waiting for some sort of cue as to what he wanted to do.

When Gavin finally moved, it was to turn bodily toward him, to make uncomfortably direct eye contact that James couldn’t help but feel like it was a mistake to break.

“If you hurt him again, James,” Gavin said like he was laying a curse, more serious than James had thought him capable of, “If you scare him or if you _ever_ raise a hand to him -”

“He would cut it off,” James quirked a quick smile and, slowly, so did Gavin.

“Get out of the car. We’re already fashionably late, any longer and Aleks might be upset with us.”

Gavin got out, and James followed. His legs, at least, were mostly uninjured and he could walk himself into the building.

The doorman didn’t bat an eye at them, just held the door.

“Have that ugly purple van crushed,” Gavin said as he passed inside, and the doorman gave a swift nod. James had a feeling the van would be gone within the hour.

“Now,” Gavin continued when they were inside, “As for your problem. It’s not much, but it will do as a substitute until you can give him the real thing.” Gavin pulled one of his own rings off, a gold band with tiny, intricate silver lines running through it.

“Um,” James blinked at the extended ring, mouth falling open a little, “Is this...are you…”

“Don’t make me say it.” Gavin said stiffly, “Just take the ring, Nova.”

James, shakily, reached out to accept.

“Oh, Mister Wilson!” The front desk attendant, now an older man next to another young lady, stood up, “You’re here! We have your drycleaning and strict orders to give them to you as soon as we see you.”

James looked between Gavin and the clerk, who had disappeared into the back room for a moment and promptly returned with both a small black bag zipped up and a suit bag.

“Well,” Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose, “If you’re going to propose tonight, you’d best at least be wearing the right suit.”

James, slowly, made his way to the desk to accept the suit. The attendant smiled at him as he took the bag, and then offered the little black bag as well.

“What’s this?” He frowned, taking the bag from the man.

“Oh,” The man looked around his desk before picking up a clipboard to read off, “It was something we found in the coat pockets as we prepped your suit for cleaning. Mister Free leaves things in his clothes often enough that it’s standard procedure to lock them all in the safe and return them with the suit.”

James dropped the suit. James dropped the goddamn suit and, in his haste to open the bag, nearly ripped the zipper off.

“You _didn’t ask the staff if they had the ring_!?” Gavin shouted behind him, sounding livid, but James could hardly hear him because there it was -

The box. Small, black, velvet and soft when he pulled it out to look at it.

The ring.

He could cry. Actually, he thought he was. He reached up to wipe his eyes with his thumb and pointer, and then carefully leaned down to pick up his suit.

“Thank you,” He clutched the box close to his chest and looked at the man, “So fucking much. You just saved my life.”

“Oh,” The man grinned, bigger and more genuine, “All in a day’s work, sir.”

“Thank you,” Gavin grabbed James by both shoulders - which, _ow_ \- and started to shove him toward the elevator, “We’ll just be - actually, do you have any water and a box of tissues?”

“Might I offer some makeup wipes?” The young lady at the desk offered, timid, and then became too flustered to do more than nod through a tomato-red face as she handed off the little packet to Gavin, who thanked her profusely.

Gavin, prizes in his grasp, turned back to James, who was still staring at his box with a dumbfounded expression.

“What are you doing!?” Gavin tucked the wipes in his hand and snatched the suit from him, “On the elevator, you can change as we ride.”

“But the blood -” James started, to which Gavin held up the wipes, so James just. Went.

They piled into the private elevator up to the penthouse and James had never stripped and redressed so fast in his life. He didn’t even care that Gavin was a few feet away from him. By the time he was buttoning the pants, Gavin was buttoning his shirt, both of them trying to beat the thirty seconds it took to reach the top. When the doors dinged open, they were both almost immediately bombarded with loud, pulsing music.

It almost sent James to his knees, his headache only intensifying. But Gavin didn’t give him the chance to wait, just tugged him out of the elevator and into the little hallway between it and the door. While he finished buttoning his shirt, Gavin pulled two wipes from the packet and forced James to let him hold his face in place and scrub.

It fucking _hurt_ and Gavin wasn’t kind at all. Blood had hardened around his chin and neck and nose from the crash and it took Gavin a full minute of painful rubbing to get it clear to his satisfaction. James let him do it, busy trying to get his clothes in order and tie his stupid tie with a box in his hand. He refused to let go of it though, so he did his best while Gavin went to work on his forehead next, only a little more gentle around the still-open gash.

“Fix your hair,” Gavin swatted at his hands when he was done rubbing his face raw, “I’ll do this,”

“You’re being very helpful,” James pointed out, because he really was a fool. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and all, except Gavin was a _snake_ , not a horse.

“If you’re bound and determined,” Gavin furrowed his brow as he fixed his tie and then smoothed it down, “And you’re doing it in front of all his friends and family, then you are going to be as handsome as you are _capable_ of being, by God. This better be the most romantic speech of your life or so help me.”

“What...what made you change your mind?”

“What can I say? There’s something about this that pulls at my heartstrings.” Gavin muttered, looking miffed even as he primped.

“Thanks?” James offered in response, smoothing his hair back up so he could retie the bun, “I - thank you.”

“Stop it,” Gavin snapped, irritated, “Don’t make this mushy, Wilson. We hate each other, that won’t change, and that’s that.”

“Yes,” James agreed, because facts were facts, “But. Still. Whatever. Thank you.”

“Look at you,” Gavin frowned harder, looking him up and down, “Shoes a mess, face a mess, hands a _mess_. But you’ll do.”

“Yeah?” James looked down at himself, and then held the box in his hand.

“Wait, let me -” Gavin reached for the box and, not taking it from James’ hand, opened the lid. He looked at the ring inside - beautiful, shiming, unblemished, James had no idea why he’d ever thought it wasn’t perfect - and then closed the lid again with a nod. “I had to check first. Make sure it wasn’t ugly. You did it _no_ justice in the car.”

“I think I have a concussion.” James admitted.

“We’ll take you to the hospital after you propose and meet Burnie,” Gavin promised, very reasonably, and then marched him to the door.

The panel was literally vibrating with the force of the music inside. James was going to pass out.

It was unlocked - he had a key, anyway, why was he so relieved that it was unlocked - and he pushed the door open and stepped into the penthouse.

Lindsey had done….an amazing job. The entire penthouse was bathed in gentle, comforting blue, except for the bar and the dessert table in the kitchen, which were spotlighted in golden light. James could see the lights around the outside railing like Gavin had wanted, beams of light facing the sky and slowly rotating. There was a buffet table outside, far enough from the pool to avoid splashing but not at the very edge of the place, either. People were...everywhere. In the pool, on the couch - which had not, thank god, been moved - and mingling all over the walkways of the penthouse.

He was looking for Aleks, but Joe found him first.

“James!” Joe said, and then threw himself into a hug that James wasn’t expecting. He clutched the box tight in his fist and returned Joe’s squeeze, confused.

“Aleks is on a warpath,” Joe said as soon as he broke away, “Brett’s got him distracted over by the buffet table, but he’s so _mad_ , dude. Where have you _been_? Your phone went to voicemail for all of us. Do you have a black eye? What happened to your head, holy shit!”

“Long story, man,” James squeezed Joe’s shoulders, “I need to find Aleks.”

“No need,” Gavin said, amused, “He’s found us.”

“Bye,” Joe said quickly, and made himself scarce.

It was like the parting of the red sea, the way the crowd shifted to make a path for Aleks to them. He didn’t move like he was angry, but James could see the plastered on calm and, past it, the fury. Most of it was fear, James was sure, concern that they’d been missing for three or four hours, that their phones hadn’t been working.

Some of it was genuine anger, though, and it was about to come down on them. Or, it _was_ , until Aleks got close enough for the light of the hallway to properly illuminate them to him outside of the blue that James was sure obscured the worst of the bruising.

Gavin had done his best, or maybe not, but James couldn’t hide the darkest bruises he had no doubt were forming around his eyes from the nose thing or the gash on his head, and Gavin hadn’t come away completely unharmed either, even if it was only a dirty, rumpled suit and some roughed up wrists.

“What,” Aleks said as soon as he was close enough to see them, “ _Happened_!?”

Music was still playing, loudly, James was almost surprised they hadn’t heard it much on the street, but the conversational chatter had died down. Everyone was listening, because of course they were.

“Well,” James started, and just kept talking, “It started about eight months ago.”

“James, I am _not_ in the mood.”

“I took a job,” James swallowed his nerves and stepped forward until he was in front of Aleks, who glared at him with more confusion and concern than anger. He looked - beautiful. His hair had been newly bleached, probably at the spa, and clipped shorter, and James understood why he was wearing what he was, now. Aleks’ suit was dark and perfect as a contrast to his skin and hair, the silver of the suit accents bringing out the silver accents of his earing and makeup. He’d gone for a sharp look, clear gloss on his lips and silver around his eyes, the eyeliner dark enough to stand out against the pale of the rest of the palette.

“Yes, I know. I was the job.”

That earned a smile, even though James had thought that he’d never get his face to work properly again.

“Yeah. Yeah, you were. So about eight months ago, I took a job and that job turned out to be you. We went to a dumb little dinar and somewhere between Never Gonna Give You Up and using a screwdriver to start the rental, I think I fell a little bit in love with you, Aleksandr Free.”

“That’s very sweet, and also wow, okay, we’re gonna talk about that later, but you know that my entire family is behind me, right? Also Gavin is behind you.”

“I know,” James nodded, “It was kind of the plan. Because, see,” he took Aleks’ hand and Aleks let him, eyes looking suspiciously shiny and perfectly sculpted brows scrunching. “See, I’m _stupid_ about you. I’m a fucking moron about you! Eight months and you’ve got me running all over the city just so I can - humiliate myself in front of your entire family! I’ve been in a car with Gavin Free for, like, six hours, because I’m just. In fucking love with you.”

Aleks opened his mouth like he was going to say something, his cheeks beginning to go pink.

“So seven months ago, this fucker,” he points a thumb behind him at Gavin, “Tells me to come back and talk to you. And I did, and you pushed me over the couch and I almost got a concussion on your goddamn floor, and it was the happiest moment of my life. And then four months ago, you asked me to give up my privacy and my apartment to move into your place, where your weirdly-dependent family show up without warning and you make me eat weird, organic shit I’ve never heard of and I have to go on a two minute elevator ride to walk the dogs, and it was the happiest moment of my life.”

“This sounds suspiciously like a movie.” Aleks said, and then sniffed, “What’s happening right now?”

“And then two months ago, I was walking down the street and thought about your dumb face and realized that I never wanted to be in a place where I couldn’t see it. And I got to go home and see you there waiting for me and it was the happiest moment of my life.”

“Uncle Burnie, this is James,” Aleks said loudly, “He doesn’t usually profess his love for me every time he is late to an important thing, but I guess today is a special occasion.”

“Shut up, I’m not done,” James squeezed his hand and plowed on because he had shit to say and he hadn’t taken a moment of the day to figure out exactly what it was, “Ten hours ago, I made the dumbest fucking mistake of my life. I lost something really important, and I had to go find it. Gavin, because he hates me, decided to help me out. In the last six hours, I shook down a tailor for their security tapes, was ambushed in a parking lot and nearly killed some dude, got in a car chase, wrecked my favorite Escalade, was kidnapped, had an oddly emotional escape and then found out that I hadn’t lost anything at all. I just hadn’t asked.”

“Did you leave something in your goddamn suit like I’ve told you not to do a million times?” Aleks said, kind of sounding like he was just talking to avoid freaking out.

“I’m done not asking.” James finally dropped to one knee, slowly because his entire body was a train wreck, and opened his palm to reveal the ring box. He flipped it open, heart in his throat. “Aleksandr Free, every time you came into a room, I have a new happiest moment of my life, and I want to have those moments with you for as long as I’ve got a life. This morning, we decided to talk about the nomenclature of our relationship, so how does _fiancé_ sound?” He offered the ring, looking up at Aleks with as big a smile as his lips would give through the nerves. The rest of the party was still dead silent - but a song was playing, familiar and perfect for all that it was just an instrumental and James owed someone at _least_ ten bucks.

“So, Harlow gold,” James inhaled and exhaled one last time, “Will you marry me?”

Aleks’ mouth had fallen open when James had gone down and hadn’t closed since, and he looked between the ring and James what must have been a hundred times, hands still in the air from where James had let go of them to kneel.

James...let him have his moment. It was a lot to take in, for sure. He didn’t mind waiting. Where all of the Fakes could see him, looking like an idiot. The _plan_ had been to do this in private, ina romantic set up in their bedroom. And then Aleks could leave the private places and announce to whoever he wanted to what had happened and his answer.

James should have figured. Aleks was never one for following the plan, especially not one that saved James from trouble.

Aleks’ eyes finally lifted from James to Gavin, a silent plea on his face that would have made any doubts James had disperse.

“Well,” Gavin said from behind him, sounding far too choked up, “Go on, then.”

Aleks nearly batted the ring out of his hand in his attempt to kiss him.

“Yes,” Aleks nearly squeaked, voice cracking and he paused pressing kisses to James’ face to clear his throat and try again, “Yes! Yes, okay, let’s get married, right now.”

“I think you need to put the fucking ring on first, loser,” James scoffed, but the shake of his voice gave him away pretty fast. His hands weren’t much better when he plucked the ring from the box but it was gratifying that Aleks’ hand wasn’t steady when he offered it, either. There was a light scattering of applause behind Aleks that quickly devolved into loud cheering and wolf whistles - James was pretty sure he heard both Brett and Asher yelling something obscene.

He...ignored all of that and slipped the ring onto Aleks’ finger, watched it glide across his skin until it set snuggly at the base, the pink of the diamond gleaming gently where the light reflected off of it.

“Good?”

“Perfect.” Aleks moved his hand a little, first one way and then the other, admiring the ring, “It’s beautiful. What the fuck, dude, how did you hide this?”

“Badly,” James said blandly, and then Aleks helped him back onto his feet and cupped his face for another kiss, and then another and another until Gavin loudly cleared his throat.

“Now that that’s over,” Gavin smiled winningly, “This a party or what? Is there a doctor in the house? I’m looking for you, Caleb.”

Bette Davis Eyes was still playing but no one complained - too much - when it was skipped over so a more upbeat song could start. Wellwishers were almost immediate, but Gavin shooed them away just as quickly, only allowing one man through.

Caleb had only been in James’ presence once, when he’d been running a job with a few of B-team and Matt had been hurt. Caleb had come from the shadows like some sort of VA Nurse Batman.

“Aleks’ fiancé probably has a concussion. We need to get him checked out, preferably before he dies. Or, actually, no. Nevermind.”

“Gavin,” Aleks said, a repremand, and Gavin sighed deeply, but changed his tune.

“Blow to the head with a shotgun butt, and then a few more knocks. Maybe a broken nose from a crash? Something is definitely wrong with his wrists. Am I missing anything? Oh, ha, of course not. That’s it.”

“It’s not broken,” James offered, “An airbag suckerpunched me, that’s all.”

“Christ,” Aleks said, holding one of his hands, and James refused to admit that he preened under the attention. He was still riding high from Aleks’ kisses and his _yes_ , and the fact that he was...engaged.

If not for the fact that he might have a concussion that could kill him, he would have happily explained that nothing could be wrong with him when he was feeling this good.

“Yeah, uh,” Caleb blinked, “Let’s take this to the bedroom.”

“Guest room,” James said immediately, “To the guest room.”

Gavin and Aleks both gave him a suspicious look, but he didn’t want to explain why the room would be decked out in mood setting shit while he was getting checked out by a doctor.

The examination was brief, the four of them in what they called the guest room, though which was, in all actuality, Gavin’s room almost exclusively. James sat on the bed and Caleb checked his pupils, asked a few questions, admitted that he’d need a lot of machinery that wasn’t, unfortunately, a part of the list of things the decorators had brought before he could say anything conclusive.

“Usually, I’d say we need to get you to the hospital,” Caleb decided, “But I know that you won’t go right now. So I’ll hunt down some pain killers for you from my bag and I’ll expect you in my offices at nine sharp for some testing. Deal?”

“I think I can manage that,” James agreed, relieved at the thought of some pain relief, “The pills gonna fuck me up?”

“You might be kinda loopy. Get some food in you, plenty of fluids, absolutely _no_ drugs or alcohol, and you should stay standing for a while longer.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to just go to bed?” Aleks sat next to him on the bed, “I can send everyone home, we’ve had enough partying between the lot of us to put the Greeks to shame.”

“Absolutely not,” James said with as much conviction as he could without wincing, “I’m fine, dude. If I feel any worse, I’ll tell you, okay?”

Aleks looked at him firmly, and then glanced at Gavin for a second like he was contemplating something. Finally, he nodded.

“A few hours. That’s it.”

“That’s enough time.” James squeezed his hand, “Plenty of time.”

“I’ll run to my car to get those painkillers,” None of them bothered asking why Caleb had brought medical supplies in the first place. James was more surprised he didn’t carry a bottle on his person.

“I won’t ask for it now,” Aleks said when Caleb left the room, looking between them both, “Because I have an event to host and I won’t look like Chris Crooker while I do it -”

“Boo, old meme,” James heckled him and was swatted on the arm for it.

“While I _do_ ,” Aleks repeated for emphasis, “But don’t think this,” he held up his hand, where the ring proudly set, “Has got either of you out of explaining what the actual, honest to god fuck happened in the _six hours_ I leave you alone.”

James just grinned, because now that it was over and the ring was where it belonged, the day seemed like a pleasantly hazy, bad dream.

“After the party, love,” Gavin promised, quiet, and then they just sat in a mostly comfortable silence, James’ head on Aleks’ shoulder and Gavin watching the door, until Caleb returned with some pills and a cup of water.

Aleks seemed to take the decision to keep James at the party as an invitation to speed run introductions to his family once the medicine had kicked in and his headache wasn’t so bad.

Gavin stood off to the side, conversing with nearly everyone who came to him and James had watched him at first, for signs that he’d changed his mind or that he was going to flip, but he didn’t and James eventually lost track of him through all the introductions.

He’d heard stories about most of the people here, but it was nice to put names to faces. There was Miles, who did the voices, and Barbara, who did the puns; Gus, who was Geoff’s best friend, and Matt, who was the reason anyone had any money at all; Arron and Blaine, who he’d heard more embarrassing stories about than the average bear; like three Chris’ and all of the Adams that weren’t Kovic; he met Joel for a brief moment, but he was engrossed in a conversation with Gavin that Aleks didn’t look enthused about and he was swiftly steered away. He met most of Fakehaus again, who had taken the whole missing him by an inch thing during the ring incident in stride mostly, aside from Kovic, and the newbie Sugars that Aleks had invited because he was friendly with a few of them, and then there were the other branches of Fakes and an assortment of associates and friends that James forgot almost as fast as he met them.

But he knew where the intro train ended, and he geared himself up for it as he spotted a vaguely familiar face in the crowd heading toward he and Aleks.

“Ready?” Aleks whispered, holding his hand so tight it would have hurt, had James not almost lost them to what _too tight_ really meant a couple hours earlier. Caleb had wrapped his wrists after a thorough cleaning, and they were kind of numb but Aleks’ squeezing his hand brought feeling back into them.

“No,” James whispered back, “I’ve been hit in the face twice today. If he does it again, I will probably die.”

“He isn’t going to _hit_ my fiancé, James.”

“...say it again.”

“He isn’t going to hit you,”

“ _No_ , don’t be an asshole. Say it again.”

“fiancé.” Aleks repeated, done teasing. He lifted his hand, kissed the back of his fingers, “My fiancé.”

James...didn’t think he’d ever get tired of hearing that. When Joe had said it a few days ago, it had seemed almost scary. But here, actually hearing Aleks call him his _fiancé_ \- they were going to get married. James was going to sign a bunch of paperwork so that if they, for some reason, got divorced, Aleks would still own his entire ass in the settlement and Aleks was going to tell the whole damn city that he was very much taken and James was probably going to hate the entire ceremony apart from when he actually got to kiss him.

Gavin would probably try to take over the planning. Aleks would be the closest thing to a bridezilla that a groom could be, and James would make as many appeals as he could to Aleks that they should just go to Vegas and get hitched instead of doing the whole big white wedding things because neither of them were virgins nor particularly pure in any other aspect. He’d get shot down and be forced to go along with the big white wedding idea, and his side would have about six seats filled so they’d have to use most of it to seat the rest of Aleks’ family. They’d argue about last names and if either of them were taking the other’s, or keeping theirs.

It sounded like it was going to be the most stressful situation he’d ever experienced, and he wanted every goddamn second of it.

“Aleks!” Burnie Burns said, booming and friendly, and gathered Aleks up in a bear hug that nearly ripped their hands apart. But James had just spent a day in the company of Gavin Free and he wasn’t going to let Aleks go _now_ , so he just moved closer to help with slack.

“Uncle Burnie!” Aleks hugged him back, just as hard if not quite as big, and James waited awkwardly until the hug was finished.

“I wanted you to meet James,” Aleks said, tugging James forward, “My _fiancé_.”

“I heard,” Burnie said, amused. He had a nice voice, calm but authoritative. James could see he was used to being in charge. “Nice ta’ meet’cha, James. What do you do?”

“Security,” James offered a hand and Burnie took it with an approving nod. His fist was tight, but not nearly as painful as the first handshake he’d shared with Ryan. “I’m Aleks’ security, technically.”

“Twenty-four hour surveillance, huh?” Burnie wiggled his eyebrows - and oh, Jesus, this was where _Gavin_ had got it to pass to Aleks, “Must be nice.”

“I guess,” Aleks said, blasé, but he couldn’t keep the grin off his face if he tried.

Burnie made a _mhm_ sound, looking between them approvingly. But James remembered what Gavin had said, so he was ready when Burnie continued.

“I assume Gav’s already explained what’ll happen to you, Wilson?”

Aleks had not given him his last name, not that James was surprised. He wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in this room knew his name right now.

“Yeah,” He nodded, the body-warm band of gold around Aleks’ finger pressed to the skin of James’. He carefully slid their fingers together so he could run his thumb along the slight bulk of it against his skin.

“Great, then we shouldn’t have a problem! You see the game last night?”

Things from there were...a lot easier. It was casual, and Aleks was a lot more relaxed after meeting Burnie. James had to make the rounds with the Fakes, who had different reactions to the proposal. It ranged from Jack and Geoff, who both cried just remembering it, to Jeremy, who made a fist and punched his other hand in James’ direction and then gave Aleks a thumbs-up and a “Congrats, man!” which...was about what he’d expected. Michael had kept his tears to himself, at least, even if James had caught him wiping his eyes a time or two on Ray’s sleeve.

Their friends were also waiting for them to eventually make it to their little corner, where both their groups had congregated. Brett and Trevor were to either side of Asher, the three of them playing some sort of mobile game that required three brains instead of one, and Lindsey and Anna were talking with Joe and Jakob about an assortment of topics that seemed to flow faster than answers.

“We wasted four hours of our lives,” Asher sighed when they were finally able to come say hello, “You didn’t even _see_ it.”

“Which was my job,” Trevor grinned, big and smug, “Mission accomplished, James.”

“Yeah, dude,” James clasped him on the shoulder, You and Brett were both great. Thanks.”

“I can’t believe you turned my own friends against me like that,” Aleks gave them all betrayed looks, “What the fuck. Did everyone else know?”

“Just my team and your two friends and Gavin, after this morning.”

“Still waiting on the story, by the way,”

“After the party,” James promised again, so Aleks let it drop.

The party started to wind down an hour and a half after James finally showed up. To be fair, he’d missed the first three quarters of it and wasn’t exactly dying to keep things running and Aleks had been serious about clearing the place within a few hours. His head was killing him and he just wanted to hang out with Aleks and appreciate the new bling.

Aleks saw everyone out at the end, while James and Lindsey started to move all the leftover food into the house, though he was quickly stopped and told to sit and stay still rather strictly by Anna. The fridge was definitely big enough for everything and, between their friends, the food was away and wrapped before Lindsey could even promise to send someone to take care of it.

“Just dismantle that bar and the tables and the lights, and I don’t care about anything else.” James said firmly. He could take care of his own house, thanks.

Lindsey shrugged and then agreed to just bring some people in tomorrow for a quick clean up and that was about the end of that conversation.

They were the last to leave, aside from the Fakes, who had all congregated into the living room with a fresh brew of coffee. Anna kissed his cheeks and wished him luck while Asher squeezed his shoulder and promised that it was the best decision he’d ever made. They left hand in hand, looking just as dopey in love as they had in Italy. Jakob congratulated him with a firm handshake, and then hugged him when James only laughed at his attempt at stoicism, but that hug was a weak attempt compared to the one Joe pulled him into before he left.

“I’m proud of you, bro,” Joe whispered, emotional, and James just nodded and pretended his eyes weren’t burning, too.

Brett and Trevor had said their goodbyes to Aleks and slipped out early, but James made a mental note he hoped he wouldnt forget to send them something in thanks for their help.

“We did presents earlier,” Aleks explained, when James discovered a mountain of _things_ in the back of the living room area. He hadn’t noticed it all in the dark of the party lights, but it ws pretty fucking apparent in the normal lights.

“Jesus. I’m glad I proposed instead of buying something to add to this pile.”

“Oh, yeah, think of the economy of space in the apartment. The proposal was definitely the best way to go.”

James just grinned, and Aleks matched him.

By midnight, the penthouse had emptied of all but the two of them and the Fakes. The dogs had been locked in their room all day with Celia, so James let them out while Aleks and Gavin talked stood together in the kitchen, away from their crew on the sectional. He was sure they had plenty to say to each other.

He came back from the lawn with the dogs roaming around his feet, still tired from being woken up, to find them hugging.

He went to the dog room to make sure that everyone was set up and comfortable for the night and for no other reason.

When he emerged, they weren’t hugging anymore, but Gavin was holding his hands and sayng something into his knuckles that was making Aleks laugh until he cried.

“Interrupting?” He asked as he approached, unsure of his welcome.

“No,” Gavin cleared his throat and released Aleks’ hands, “We were just talking about past birthdays. This one was surprisingly tame.”

“Maybe because you were gone for most of it?”

“I’m _sorry_ , Aleksandr, but we were _kidnapped_. It’s a perfectly acceptable answer.”

“Any excuse to avoid set up, huh?” Aleks teased, and Gavin laughed. It was free, excuse the pun, and genuinely happy.

Aleks was his heart.

James...couldn’t blame him, really, for being so uncomfortable with the idea of James asking Aleks to marry him.

“Oh, before I forget,” Gavin located the unused cookie jar that James and Aleks had stuck in the counter of the kitchen one day and never touched again, and pulled the top off. “We missed present time, but I hope you don’t mind if I give you a little something.”

“I _suppose_ I can make an exception,” Aleks grinned, and covered his eyes without prompting, “Okay, I won’t look.”

“Good boy, love,” Gavin laughed again and James watched him pull two thick slices of paper out of the jar and replace the lid.

He returned to Aleks and held out the tickets, “Okay. Open.”

Aleks’ hands flew off his face, excitement palpable, and then clapped with enthusiasm.

“A cruise?”

“A two week tour of a few nice coasts during the cold season, get you away from all that nasty November weather.”

“Gavin, this is…” Aleks blinked, looking close to tears again, “You really didn’t have to. I’m just...fucking glad you’re here.”

“Oh, please. What better way to celebrate the happy couple than with a cruise for two, hm?” Gavin cupped Aleks’ cheeks and looked him over approvingly, “You’ve _grown_ so much, Aleks. Where did the time go?”

“That’s too much philosophy for me to answer,” Aleks laughed, sounding as choked up as Gavin was getting. He leaned into Gavin’s hand, practically glowing. Even tired and exhausted, he just - looked happy, and James loved him.

“All the same,” Gavin cleared his throat and stroked Aleks’ cheek one last time before letting go, “A nice retreat for the two of you. How’s that sound, love?”

“Actually,” He cleared his throat, having started talking before he’d even really made the decision, “I, um. Have a crippling fear of the ocean.”

Or, he would from now on.

“Sorry, man, I know you meant well. But I don’t think I’d be able to step on a boat if someone had a gun on me.” James met Gavin’s eyes and hoped that he got the meaning, “I bet it would be fun for the two of you to go, though. Get pampered, eat a lot, complain about getting fat, take pictures of whales or some shit.”

 _I don’t want to take him from you. I just want to be with him_. James hadn’t been lying. He was...good. Happy just to have this. He didn’t mind stepping aside, not as long as it was an equal effort on both their parts. He would extend the olive branch; or, really, accept the one Gavin had offered him when he hadn’t shot James dead before he’d even got the ring back.

“For real?” Aleks gave him a suspicious look, “You two are acting really chummy tonight. What is this about?”

“I told you,” James grinned, tugged him close with an arm around his shoulders until he was snug to his side, “A truce. Right, Free?”

Gavin looked him over, calculating, and then gave a slow, almost unsure, nod. “Yes. A truce. I suppose it would be a waste if someone didn’t use the other ticket. What do you say, love? Want to go on an adventure with me?”

“You’re _sure_ you won’t get killed if I leave you in the city for two weeks?” Aleks asked James, still suspicious.

“I lasted almost thirty years before you, fucker. I can handle a couple weeks of you and your most annoying family member on a boat. Maybe I’ll finally catch up on my beauty sleep.”

“You do need it,” Gavin said, sounding pitying, and James gave him a very enthusiastic bird.

“Can you leave now?” He asked pointedly.

“I dunno, do you still need to go to the hospital for your mild headache, you baby?”

“I was _pistol whipped with a shotgun_!”

“Is it still pistol whipping if it isn’t a pistol?”

“You were _pistol whipped_?”

“ _Leave_ , Gavin!”

Gavin, laughing loudly, left the tickets safely tucked in the cookie jar again and gathered his mostly drunken entourage to finally take their leave. It was with a good number of loud, enthusiastic goodbyes that they were herded out of the penthouse and Aleks watched them go just a little sadly.

“Goodnight, love. Happy birthday.” Gavin said before he closed the door behind him, and he and Aleks exchanged waves that made James roll his eyes. They acted like they’d never see each other every time they separated.

The door clicked shut, and they heard the lock being turned and then the soft ding of the elevator doors closing as the sound of the Fakes faded away.

“Well.” He said, “Eventful, huh?”

“Shut up,” Aleks demanded, and he was suddenly in James’ space, crowding him until he found himself being pushed toward the bedrooms, “You are in _so_ much trouble.”

“If I say that, really, it was all Gavin’s fault, would you believe me?”

“No.”

“Well, if the clothing choices hadn’t suddenly changed -”

“James -” Aleks started, shoving the door open as he did - only to stop talking to take in their bedroom. James had to do the same.

Anna and Asher had...He had no words.

“It’s. It’s all…”

“The bed sheets.” James said, because he’d loved their sheets.

“It’s all -”

Cow print. From the sheets to the pillow slips to the curtains. There were even carpets all over the floor, shaggy cow print rugs that covered most of the floor, and cow print wall hangings over...just everything. Some of them weren’t even black and white, but brown splotches instead.

“I was going to propose to you in this.” James said, because Jesus Christ.

“I saw those fuckers disappear back here with Trevor an hour ago,” Aleks pressed a hand to his face, “I bet it was really fucking nice for when we came in and then they were gonna do _this_ as a prank.”

“I’m gonna fucking kill ‘em,” James decided, somehow calm despite all of the cow print in his home.

“Let me make sure you aren’t dying first, please,” Aleks said and they ignored the, frankly, overwhelming amount of things happening so he could lead James to the bathroom.

He forced James to strip down to nothing and then they took a nice, relaxing shower. Aleks only stood under the spray long enough to scrub himself down, worry over the dark bruises from James’ seatbelt, and then hop right back out.

“I don’t want to have it off,” He said with a shrug when James looked at him from where he was still washing his hair and wiggled his fingers at him, where the ring was sitting again.

That made James hurry, as fast as sore arms and a dizzy head would let him.

Aleks was familiar enough with concussions to say with some level of confidence that James wasn’t dying, but that they would definitely be going to Caleb’s clinic tomorrow to make double sure, and then they turned out every light in the room so as to hide the sight of what Anna and Asher had done and hid under the blankets together. Despite the disgusting pattern, it was a _really_ comfortable set of sheets and James found himself relaxing in them quite happily, Aleks at his side and perfectly content.

“Gonna tell me the story now?” He asked, quiet, so James did. He left out most of the...rather intense arguments between he and Gavin, but he was sure Aleks could fill in the blanks himself.

He grew more and more tired as the story went on, like admitting to all that had happened was making it real enough to force him to recover. By the time he’d reached the part where the attendant had given him the bag, he was speaking through yawns, patting at Aleks’ back and trying to stop himself from falling asleep just yet. Just a little longer.

Aleks curled against his side, stroking the covered skin of his wrist and staying quiet. Even now, James could feel the band on his finger, like he hadn’t even wanted to take it off to sleep.

“You...didn’t have to do any of that.” Aleks whispered into the skin of his arm, where he was resting his head, “You could have asked me with a pop top. What the fuck, James.”

“You deserve a ring.” James said firmly, because he fucking did. “You deserve a good...everything. Ring, story, party. Whatever. I want you to have it all.”

Aleks set up suddenly, leaned over until he could kiss James again. It was desperate, salty enough that James had a feeling Aleks had had the dark room idea for reasons other than the cow print.

“I love you,” Aleks whispered, kissed him again on the lips, and then the forehead, his cheeks, and then his lips again, “I love you, I love you,”

“I love you,” James said back, and then suddenly laughed into their kiss.

“I’m trying to be mushy and romantic here, what is so goddamn funny, James?”

“It’s just.” James grabbed his face and kissed him again, just once, “You want to kiss me.”

“Oh my god.”

“You _like_ me. You want to _marry_ me!”

“I’m going to sleep,” Aleks said, rolling off of him and onto his side with his back facing James. James immediately followed him, pressing his front to Aleks’ back and dropping an arm around his waist. Aleks shoved at him but just pulled him closer almost at the same time, until they were both snug and warm together.

“You were definitely not what I was expecting, diamond boy,” James said, when he thought Aleks was mostly asleep. Still, Aleks stroked his fingers where their hands were interlaced and James could see the grin on his face even though he couldn’t really.

“You weren’t, either.” he said, just as quiet, too vulnerable for the world outside of this bed to ever hear. James got to though, and it meant more to him than he really knew how to put into words, that Aleks would share it with him, that he wanted James to share it with him, too.

They slept, the ring warm and safe between the tangled grips of their fingers.


End file.
